Yesterday, President Obama announced that he had rejected the permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The decision came despite the State Department’s rigorous study showing that the Keystone XL pipeline would pose no undue risks to people or the environment – neither by the type of crude it would be carrying, nor by the safety of the pipeline itself.

Earlier this week, I talked about how growing production of shale natural gas is spurring a “renaissance” in U.S. manufacturing. Yesterday, that “renaissance” was the talk of the White House. There, President Obama held a forum recognizing the influx in U.S. manufacturing jobs and investment and released a report detailing the reasons behind this positive trend.

Amid all the concern expressed about a decline in the United States’ manufacturing base in recent years, a positive turn of events is helping drive a comeback in this critical sector of the American economy: shale natural gas. A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, “Shale Gas: A renaissance in US manufacturing?”, sums up two main reasons why exponential growth in U.S. shale gas production is giving a much-needed boost to U.S. manufacturers.

$76 billion share of U.S. GDP. $33 billion in capital investments made. $18.6 billion in federal, state and local government tax and federal royalty revenues. 600,000 jobs supported. And that was just in 2010. These impressive stats sum up the economic contributions of U.S. shale gas production in 2010, according to a recent study from IHS Global Insight. But even better outcomes are yet to come, the study’s findings show.