Dramatic claims have been made about the effect of shale gas discoveries in the continental U.S. on the country's energy needs. However, several industry experts question the estimated volume of recoverable reserves as well as the economic viability of producing them at current market prices for...

Most finance textbooks suggest that companies evaluate investment projects using discount rates that reflect both the debt capacity and the unique risks of the project. In practice, however, companies often use their company-wide WACC to evaluate such investments because of the difficulty of...