I want you to read this slowly and carefully and then think on't!
U.S. Passes Saudis In Oil Output
Eh? What? Say that again! The Yanks are actually producing more oil than Saudi? Crikey! It means, according to a report in Investers.Com, that:
Imports of foreign oil will fall from 60% in 2008 to likely 30% in 2013. (My emphasis)
Not quite sure I understand the detailed logic of that last sentence, I mean, 60% and 30% of what exactly? Even so, it is easy to imagine the $ zillions that America will save and, of course, the $ zillions they will earn by exporting it. So, you ask, where is this bonanza coming from? The answer is mainly private money operating on privately-owned, or State-owned, land; the States concerned, of course, being mainly Republican! Like everything in life there are always problems and the biggest problem facing this resurgence in the production of shale oil and gas comes in the form of the US government and its 'Green Gestapo', the EPA:
The Administration's policies have hardly welcomed the oil boom although the
president selectively claims credit.
Recall that then-candidate Barack Obama, during the 2008 campaign, pledged
"to end the tyranny of oil in our generation as our parents ended the tyranny of
Hitler." His administration, indeed, has done plenty to stymie upstream oil
production although, to date, without the lethal regulatory weapons used on
coal.
The uncertain fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, the first heavy-handed EPA
regulation for hydraulic fracturing, endangered species in oil producing
regions, and indefinitely delayed permits offshore and onshore on federal lands,
are a few of the obstacles. They all pale in comparison, however, to the EPA's
arrogation of the authority to regulate carbon dioxide.
Ask the coal industry how that goes. Whether EPA initiates the action or not,
a federal court with the Sierra Club's bidding could force EPA to impose the
same infeasible carbon limits on refineries as EPA's has imposed on
coal.
Needless to say, Obama's own favourites, the alternate energy industries who are encouraged with huge handouts from the government have all proven to be 'crocks', in the British and American meaning of the word. From here, it seems that the only man to make money out of them is Al Gore! So it will be interesting to watch the Obama 'Central Committee' wrestle with the problem of whether or not to kill this golden calf whose product could pay for all sorts of Federal goodies, but whose farts pollute the atmosphere!
Meanwhile, over here, we have £ zillions waiting to be exploited in shale gas but, alas, we have two 'Dim Daves' in charge. There is Ed Davey, a swivel-eyed Greenie who thinks windmills are going to keep us warm as the globe freezes, and Dave Cameron whose knowledge of oil is confined to telling his chauffeur to ensure the car is kept topped up!