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Once among its biggest cheerleaders, many environmentalists now vehemently oppose natural gas — and the hydraulic fracturing process that has made it more abundant than ever in the U.S. — based largely on their claim that the shale gas revolution slows the growth of renewables.

But a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper illustrates a couple realities anti-fracking activists should start embracing: Renewables absolutely must have natural gas as a backup to be a viable energy option. And because of that fact, fracking has actually helped renewable energy growth, according to the study:

“Our paper calls attention to the fact that renewables and fast-reacting fossil technologies appear as highly complementary and that they should be jointly installed to meet the goals of cutting emissions and ensuring a stable supply.”

The comprehensive study evaluated data between 1990 and 2013 from 26 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, finding that a one percent increase in the electrical generation share of “fast reacting fossil technologies” (translation: natural gas) is associated with a 0.88 percent increase in renewable generation capacity in the long term. In other words, renewable electricity generation has grown at roughly the same rate as natural gas-fired electrical generation over the past two-plus decades.

The paper completely dispels the myth that natural gas is the renewable energy industry’s mortal enemy, and the Washington Post sums up the reality of the relationship between the two perfectly with the headline “Turns out wind and solar have a secret friend: Natural gas.”

The reason is very simple. Due to the fact that the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine — and there are currently no viable economic storage options for the power generated when they do — wind and solar are the very definition of “intermittent” power sources. As we all know, energ...