I've got it. I've created the perfect business plan: an E&P-oriented MLP that I call MyShaleYouTubeMLP.com. That ought to insure many happy returns, don't you think? While Alaskan politicians and producers bicker over what's to become of that state's untapped natural gas resource, go-getters in the Lower 48 are wasting no time. Resource plays of all kinds, especially shales, are the on-ramp to more natural gas production. "Unconventional gas will be 42% of U.S. production by 2010, up from 27% in 2005," reports energy-research firm Wood Mackenzie. You may not truly appreciate the magnitude of what is going on today in natural gas. Add up the investments planned for drilling and new pipelines in the key Rocky Mountain, Texas and Midcontinent gas plays, and you will. Spending in these plays is on fire, as two articles in this month's issue make very clear. Operators in these plays are well on their way to delivering the equivalent of several North Slopes of gas by the end of this decade. Since January 2005, U.S. gas production has edged up from about 55 billion cubic feet (Bcf) a day to 56 Bcf currently. Three-fourths of that increase is coming from Wyoming, Texas and Oklahoma, the Energy Information Administration reports. For more on this, see the June issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.