Just over two years proextender facebook Without that final piece of good news, and the subsequent discovery of other massive new oil and gas shale plays around the country, October 2008 may well have turned out to have become the kickoff month of a second Great Depression.  Because the numbers clearly show that the oil and natural gas industry, thanks to the much-vilified Fracking technique that has enabled the unlocking of this vast new resource, has been the main positive driver of the US economy for half a decade now.