Coronavirus may be the straw that breaks the back of oil fracking

Consumers have some good news at the service station. Prices at the pump for gasoline and diesel are down about 6% since the beginning of the year. For that they can thank the coronavirus (now called Covid-19) outbreak—although it comes at the heavy cost of almost 47,000 people ill and 1,369 dead so far according to the Feb. 14 statistics from the World Health Organization.

At $2.42 regular and $2.91 diesel, these aren’t the lowest prices ever, but they are a big change from the...