I don't think this analysis is complete without considering the influence of oil prices. The shale revolution coincided with extremely high oil prices and the w

I don't think this analysis is complete without considering the influence of oil prices. The shale revolution coincided with extremely high oil prices and the western world is undergoing something of an energy crisis as a historically cheap source of energy runs dry. Real oil prices before and after around 2000 have been completely different worlds. Note [0] that regardless of the environmentalists, we're going to stop using oil fairly soon because peak production is basically upon us unless something more unexpected than shale happens. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil