North Dakota's Economy -- #1 In US -- Third Year In A Row -- CNN

Sent by a reader (thank you). CNN is reporting:

Propelled by a massive energy boom, North Dakota once again captured the title of the nation's hottest economy, with a growth rate five times the national average.

North Dakota's economy posted a 13.4% growth rate in 2012, according to a report released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That's nearly three times as fast as the number two state, Texas, and trounces the national average of 2.5%. 

This is the third year in a row that North Dakota took the top spot in BEA's state-by-state report on gross domestic product (GDP). The muscle behind the boom is a surge in oil production from the Bakken Shale, an underground rock formation in the northwestern part of the state.  

Thanks to high oil prices and new drilling technology -- including the controversial hydraulic fracturing, better known as "fracking" -- oil production in North Dakota is now six times higher than it was in 2007. In 2012, the North Dakota surpassed Alaska and California to become the second largest oil-producing state in the nation behind Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Controversial hydraulic fracking which has safely been done for the past forty (40) fifty (50) years, it could be added.

From wiki:

The first experimental use of hydraulic fracturing was in 1947, and the first commercially successful applications were in 1949. As of 2010, it was estimated that 60% of all new oil and gas wells worldwide were being hydraulically fractured. As of 2012, 2.5 million hydraulic fracturing jobs have been performed on oil and gas wells worldwide, more than one million of them in the United States.

And to the best of my knowledge, no significant problem noted. Better record than GM or Toyota recalls. Just saying.