One of the perennial arguments of the anti-fracking crowd has been that the shale revolution has failed to bring down oil prices.  If the huge investment in fracking hasn’t lowered prices for U.S. consumers, what’s the good of fracking?  Now that argument has gone the way of all the other objections to fracking.  When OPEC failed to cut production last month, one of the main reasons was competition from swelling production in the U.S.  Reportedly, Saudi Arabia blocked production cuts (which would have raised prices) due to fear of losing market share.  It wasn’t just Russia or Iran they were worried about.  The biggest new competitor on the block is the U.S. Since the fracking revolution began, U.S. production has increased from 5 million barrels per day at the end of 2008 to 8.5 million bpd as recently as June 2014.  That increased supply is enough to move prices on a global market that consumes 92 million bpd....(Read Full Article)