There is a revolution going on in America. But it is not part of the Tea Party or the loud Occupy Wall Street protests.
Instead, massive new reserves of gas, oil, and coal are being discovered almost everywhere in the United States, due to revolutionary methods of exploration and exploitation such as fracking and horizontal drilling. Current prices of over $100 a barrel make even complex efforts at recovery enormously profitable.
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There were always known to be additional untapped reserves of oil and gas in the petroleum-rich Gulf of Mexico, off America’s shores, and in the American West and Alaska. But even the top energy experts never imagined just how vast the energy there was — or that it was also beneath far more unlikely places such as South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. Some studies suggest the United States has now expanded its known potential gas and oil reserves tenfold.
The strategic and economic repercussions of these new finds are staggering, and remind us how a once energy-independent and thereby confident American economy soared to world dominance in the early 20th century.
America will soon again be able to supply all of its own domestic natural-gas needs — perhaps for the next 90 years at present rates of consumption. We have recently become a net exporter of refined gas and diesel fuel, and already have cut imported oil from OPEC countries by 1 million barrels per day.
With expanded exploration and conservation, the United States could also eventually supply half of its own petroleum needs. If we were to eliminate 5 million barrels of our current daily 9 million barrels of imported petroleum, the annual savings could reach nearly $200 billion per year. Eventually, the new gas and oil could add 1.6 million new jobs and up to nearly $1 trillion in federal revenue.
That windfall would cut out about a third of our present annual trade deficit — apart from additional income earned by new natural-gas exportation. “Investments,” “shovel-ready jobs,” and “stimulus” would finally become more than empty sloganeering.
But America’s new oil discoveries are not occurring in a vacuum. The entire Western Hemisphere is enjoying a fossil-fuel boom, from northern Canada to Brazil and Argentina. America’s backyard will soon be comparable to the oil-rich Persian Gulf, keeping more American money — and troops — at home. Illegal immigration should taper off as well, as oil-rich Latin American economies reap huge cash bonanzas. Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela will soon be simply one of many regional exporters.
Current crises in American foreign policy — Iran’s efforts to obtain the bomb, the protection of an embattled Israel, stopping the funding of radical Islamists — might be freed from the worries of perennial OPEC threats of cutoffs and price spikes.
Federal subsidies for inefficient corn-based-ethanol production in the Midwest also could cease. That would save the Treasury billions of dollars and allow millions of American acres to return to food production to supply an increasingly hungry world.
The Obama administration’s efforts to subsidize “green” energy so far have proved both uneconomical and occasionally corrupt — as we have seen in the Solyndra affair. Yet more gas and oil can offer America critical breathing space until better technology makes wind, solar, and electric power more price-competitive — without massive federal subsidies and a marked reduction in our standard of living.
Yep. Pretty much - notable exception perhaps is ANWR. Oil shale technology has advanced exponentially since Bush. The pipeline was not an issue then. The Gulf oil spill canard hadn't happened yet. . . .
You take half your money from pharmaceutical companies, make us type out jingos to comment and now your bombarding us with ads we cant cancel?
And then you delete inconvenient comments like you're the New York Times.
Capitalist utopia here at this miserable website.
By the way stop lionizing WFB, he was a smart guy and had a mild effect on the country, he didn't change everything like you fools love to pretend.
And stop masquerading as if you're somehow more noble than the leftists whose tactics you copy point by point!
Look at Brazil. Like us, bordered by oceans and weak neighbors, plenty of oil and other stuff.
Brazil spends 4% of what we do on the military. No foreign bases. No empire. No fleet carriers.
But they are more secure than we are. They never lost a war, Theyve never been invaded, Never worried about an atomic attack, Never needed body bags.
As someone who is married to a Brazilian and who has visited Brazil often (just returned from three weeks there) there are some other details you neglected.
The per capita income is $9600 a year. Yet basic necessities such as shoes and clothes cost two or three times what they do here in the states due to protectionism. Import duties are so high that you are either forced to pay high prices for quality imported goods or to overpay for cheap domsetically produced products. For instance, while we were there my mother in law bought a 32 inch flat screen TV made by "Buster". It costs 3x what our Samsung cost and has poorer picture quality and fewer features. Additionally, their power grid is a mess delivering power consistently but with voltage fluctuations that make it difficult to power some devices. They also cannot agree on a standard for electrical receptacles. In my mother in law's house she has 6 different kinds of electrical receptacles (all 110v, nominally) to accomodate the various types of power cords you find on the electronics and appliances sold there. The quality of things we take for granted like washing machines is so poor that my mother in law prefers to wash her clothes by hand as opposed to using my sister in law's washing machine and I agree with her because it it a POS.
My in laws live in a coastal city that is a site of some of the big oil discoveries. You can see almost 2 dozen oil platforms with the naked eye from the beach. Over that last several years the city has realized significant income from PETROBRAS stemming from the discoveries which they have used for infrastructure improvement. However, sidewalks and streets that were repaired less than three years ago are already crumbling. Makes me wonder what condition the sewers that have been put in recently are in, My in laws also complain about the amount of time it takes for any project to be completed. And they do not drink the tap water paying for bottled water because of the risk of contamination between the sewer and water lines.
My in laws live on a street that has a "canal" running down the middle of it. It is really an open storm drain that always has several inches of brackish, algae covered water in it a breeding ground for mosquitos. I have also seen rats crawling around in it as well. People essentially use it as a dump which really lends a nice odor to the neighborhood.
Brazil is still a third world country. Although from there my wife was ready to come back to the states after a week.
Historically, Brazil did fight in WWII sending troops and pilots to fight in Italy after Brazilian ships were torpedoed off the coast of Brazil (including off my wife's hometown) by Nazi submarines.
Oh, yeah, right. One commentator noted long ago that Brazil's concept of national defense was a dusty copy of the Monroe doctrine and a hot line to Washington.No wonder they, like the Europeans, spend little on national defense. And, of course, geography helps.
Without the US, they'd be prey for all kinds of evildoers.
As put, it sounds like a productive campaign issue. Unfortunately, Mitt, Newt and the rest don't get it and most couldn't sell it in the unlikely event that they eventually do get it.
If O were to take a hint from VDH and May and take away the impediments (all of them) from energy exploration and production he would pretty much be guaranteed of re-election. That's the downside. The upside would be that the country would be much better for it.
I seriously doubt tapping these vast resources will (as the author indicates) prevent illegal immigration. People will keep coming across our southern border because they have no rights in many of the countries in which they live, not because natural resources have been developed or not developed south of the border. In the case of Mexico, many people come here to escape the corruption in the Mexican government and the violence of the drug cartels. As far as profit is concerned, it will benefit the pockets of shareholders so they can buy bigger luxury cars, another yacht, and more caviar. Profits will NOT be used to repair some of those potholes in all those roads across the country, nor will they be used to benefit the general population. Most profits will continue to benefit the "filthy rich" and their degenerate life styles.
True, the profits will only benefit the "filthy rich" since they are the only ones who own shares in energy companies. No public or private union pension fund or any mutual fund that invests the 401Ks of middle class Americans own any shares in energy companies, right?
The potholes are fixed in my town. The pothole appears. After destroying the requisite number of tires, a truck arrives and 5 guys jump out. One, with a shovel, shovels a bit of asphalt into the pothole and tamps it down. The others watch. Perhaps they are trainees? Or maybe the guy with the shovel is the trainee and they are the supervisors. Who knows.
Then because the guy with the shovel is tired, they all go on a break. Then at the end of the day, they collect their Davis Bacon wages and go home. Unless they are 50, then they get to retire.
The next time it gets above freezing the pothole reappears. Rinse and repeat.
BTW, got 401K?, Union Pension plan? If so you are one of the filthy rich that owns those oil companies.
Were you under the impression that rich people keep their dividend earnings in big vaults like Scrooge McDuck?
They spend that money by buying things and hiring people. Did you believe that the big luxury car just appears out of thin air? No, it is built by middle class wage earners. Regardless, as others have pointed out, if you have a 401K or any type of pension, then you are directly benefiting from those dividends as well. Didn't know you were part of the filthy rich, did you.
