Google Images

The nascent boom in natural gas drilling is bringing a whiff of prosperity to long-depressed regions of Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states that President Obama would dearly love to carry in this year’s re-election campaign.

You might expect the president to encourage the trend, or at least to take credit for the results, which include the recent return of steel manufacturing to Youngstown, Ohio. All he needs to do is say that he wants hydraulic fracturing, the technology that makes the gas development possible, to be brought into wider use as long as environmental risks are properly managed.