Personal Finance: Investors romping in the sandbox

This year's hot investment commodity isn't gold, silver, corn or soybeans. It's sand. Thanks to the bonanza in North American oil and gas production, high quality sand is in short supply, and investors have been raking in outsized returns as a result.

Read more in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Study says fracking leads to 20,000 jobs in state

A new study funded by the petroleum industry says Wisconsin firms employ 20,000 people supporting the unconventional oil and gas business - meaning sand mines, largely. The sand from western Wisconsin is used by drilling companies in North Dakota and other states to unlock underground natural gas and oil supplies in a controversial practice called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Read more in the Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel.

UK government introduces hydraulic fracturing controls

The announcement came as the government lifted the temporary ban on 'fracking' operations used to retrieve the gas from deep underground, which was introduced after tremors were recorded at the UK's first exploratory drilling site last year. The new controls on hydraulic fracturing are designed to ensure environmental protection, public safety and public confidence . . . .

Read more in The Engineer (UK).

With Ban on Drilling Practice, Town Lands in Thick of Dispute

This old farming town near the base of the Rocky Mountains has long been considered a conservative next-door neighbor to the ultraliberal town of Boulder, a place dissected by the railroad and where middle-class families found a living at the vegetable cannery, sugar mill and Butterball turkey plant. But this month, Longmont became the first town in Colorado to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, the oil-drilling practice commonly known as fracking.

Read more the The New York Times.

U.S. to Be World's Top Oil Producer in 5 years

Bakken oil field, ND

The United States will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's leading oil producer by about 2017 and will become a net oil export by 2030, according to a new report released on Monday by the International Energy Agency. . . . The widespread adoption of techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has made those reserves much more accessible, and in the case of natural gas, resulted in a vast glut that has sent prices plunging.

Read more in The New York Times.

EPA Gas Drilling Study: Top Agency Official Optimistic Before Report's Release

A top official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is optimistic that a nationwide project examining natural gas hydraulic fracturing and potential drinking water impacts will provide comprehensive guidelines to help scientists and the public identify key issues to focus on. But the industry said past studies have already shown the process is safe.

Read this Associated Press story in The Huffington Post.