After sitting idle for two decades, there’s steam billowing from the top of the big old steel plant in Youngstown, Ohio.
This does not represent a renewal of the steel production that once created the Rust Belt. Instead, this is a product of a new industry proponents say can be a game changer, not just for the depressed Youngstown Warren area, but for the U.S. economy and the bigger energy game. It is the exploitation of oil shale.
The former steel plant now builds things like seamless piping for extracting the natural gas and oil deep underground.
There’s enough natural gas down there, some experts claim, to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and completely turn around the current financial state.
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