12 Reasons The US Shale Boom Is Totally Overrated

Flickr / TimOveThe fossil fuel industry is booming, and has a lot more room to run, thanks to incredible technological progress in oil and gas production from shale rock.

In theory, this should create jobs, lower energy costs, and bring manufacturing capacity back to the U.S.

By some accounts, the economy is cleaning up on this.

But analysts now say that while there are real gains to be had, we should be a bit more realistic about their extent.

In his new book "The Power Surge," Council on Foreign Relations expert Michael Levi says that while it's undeniable the oil and gas boom has created jobs and wealth, it's overall impact on GDP will probably be muted.

"People who claim that natural gas will spark a broad-based U.S. economic renaissance, if only pesky environmentalists lay off, are exaggerating the benefits of the shale gas bonanza," he writes.

He's not alone — we recently told you about the note from Capital Economics' Paul Dales, who says, "The boom in domestic energy production is responsible for only a small part of the rise in GDP since the recession and it does not explain why the US has outperformed most of its closest competitors."

We've compiled just a few charts that demonstrate why, outside of the energy industry itself, we're probably not going to see all that big of a spill-over effect from shale oil and gas production into the broader economy.