Scientific American reports that Ukraine’s “vulnerability” with Russia over energy “may not persist indefinitely… In fact, this could conceivably be the last time Moscow will be able to use gas as a weapon. The world’s fracking-enabled natural gas boom may, over time, upset this status quo, if not as soon as U.S. politicians would like because fracked gas cannot serve as a bargaining chip in the current crisis.”  

“That’s not just because U.S. natural gas supplies are currently low after a cold winter. Supplies will soon rebound as the U.S. enjoys an ongoing surfeit of natural gas, thanks to new techniques to free the hydrocarbons embedded in deep shale. This can not only help bolster energy independence, but eventually could also weaken the petrodollar flow into the Putin regime.”  

“But the U.S. has little ability to export that gas bonanza at present. Although six projects have already been approved for such export—totaling 240.7 million cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, or three times more than Ukraine imports from Russia presently, according to Bordoff—none of that will be ready for export before 2015, at the earliest.”