An article posted this afternoon titled “Shale gas may be the energy of the future” on Daily Finance, an AOL money & finance site, reported that: “Advocates of traditional energy sources (such as oil, natural gas, and coal) and backers of renewable energy sources (such as solar, wind, and geothermal) are frequently at odds. But there is one energy source they may have a meeting of the minds on: shale gas.”

The article importantly notes that clean-burning shale gas can be a major future energy source, but highlights the difficulties in its production: “It costs more to extract that conventional natural gas, due to the hydraulic fracturing and sideways drilling.”

In final analysis, the article concludes that: “it behooves the U.S. to move toward increased use of its plentiful, domestic natural gas. … For power plants, natural gas is a cleaner energy source than coal, and equally important, much of the natural gas supply is home-based: it represents energy dollars re-circulating in the American economy – not a wealth transfer to foreign governments for imported oil.”

Unfortunately, while families across the nation continue to struggle with rising costs of living and high energy rates as unemployment continues to climb, some in Washington are working to make it more difficult for Americans to access more of their own energy. This week, and as early as tomorrow, Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado will introduce a bill that will greatly obstruct hydraulic fracturing, which has a long and clear record as an environmentally safe and well-regulated practice.

As the Grand Junction (CO) Sentinel editorialized today, “there is no need for the federal regulation that DeGette is pushing.”

It would behoove Congress to not pass this job-killing bill and to focus on producing more American energy.