Hydraulic fracturing is performing miracles — expanding the economy, providing affordable energy almost anywhere politicians allow drilling, and improving air quality. Meanwhile, America’s abundant oil and gas is changing geopolitics by reducing our dependence on foreign sources and freeing our hand to act in the nation’s and our fellow human beings’ best interests. This is what Ronald Reagan envisioned when he became president nearly four decades ago.

In 1981, Reagan faced a nation reeling from double-digit unemployment, double-digit inflation, and double-digit interest rates. He knew the economy could not grow without reliable sources of energy, for which the United States depended on foreign sources. Meanwhile, that dependence governed the nation’s foreign policy. Reagan saw the economy, energy, and foreign policy linked inextricably with one solution: develop energy on federal lands — onshore and offshore. Of course, Reagan bristled at the term “federal lands,” declaring, “Isn’t it time we remembered that the very term means it belongs to us — to the people of America?”