Many environmental groups, of course, see the shale gas boom unleashed by hydrofracking and horizontal drilling technologies as more a curse than a blessing, producing contaminated water supplies and air pollution while scaring local landscapes.

FORBES: Will California Get Fracked?

This is all great stuff, and all necessary to create our ongoing shale boom, but the real marvel is the innovation that has take place in the realm of Horizontal Drilling.

FORBES: Horizontal Drilling: A Technological Marvel Ignored