US to become world's largest oil producer by 2020

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The United States will become the world's largest oil producer by around 2020, temporarily overtaking Saudi Arabia, as new exploration technologies help find more resources, the International Energy Agency forecast on Monday.

In its World Energy Outlook, the energy watchdog also predicted that greater oil and natural gas production -- thanks partly to a boom in shale gas output -- as well as more efficient use of energy will allow the U.S., which now imports around 20 percent of its energy needs, to become nearly self-sufficient around 2035.

That is "a dramatic reversal of the trend seen in most other energy-importing countries," the Paris-based IEA said in its report. "Energy developments in the United States are profound and their effect will be felt well beyond North America -- and the energy sector."

Rebounding U.S. oil and gas production is "steadily changing the role of North America in global energy trade," the IEA said.

For example, oil exports out of the Mideast will increasingly go to Asia as the U.S. becomes more self-sufficient. That will increase the global focus on the security of strategic routes that bring Middle East oil to Asian markets. Tensions between Iran and Western powers have raised concerns that oil exports from the Persian Gulf could be blocked in a potential conflict over Tehran's alleged plan to develop nuclear weapons.

The IEA added that global trends in the energy markets will be influenced by some countries' retreat from nuclear power, the fast spread of wind and solar technologies and a rise in unconventional gas production.

The agency concluded that despite the rising use of low carbon energy sources, huge subsidies will keep fossil fuels "dominant in the global energy mix."

"Taking all new developments and policies into account, the world is still failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path," the IEA said.

________

 

Good news for us, and "sustainability" is in the eye of the beholder.

[Rokke]

Snort. Only if we elect someone more oil friendly than Obama in 2016.

[Valin]

Fox News:

The United States will become the world's largest oil producer by around 2020,

 

Not if Barack Obama has anything to say about it!

[pollyannaish]

But hey! We'll have all the stupid windmills we want. (I hate them. They are a blight.)

[clearvision]

But hey! We'll have all the stupid windmills we want. (I hate them. They are a blight.)

Wait until the government subsidies run out and they start to rust. No money to maintain them, take them down. Rusting hulks littering the land.

Hawaii's 15 year old wind project...

 

[pollyannaish]

Wait until the government subsidies run out and they start to rust. No money to maintain them, take them down. Rusting hulks littering the land. Hawaii's 15 year old wind project...

 

Ugh.

[nickydog]

But hey! We'll have all the stupid windmills we want. (I hate them. They are a blight.)

 

And they kill birds.

 

So is that rust, or bird blood?

[clearvision]

All of the money in wind farms is the upfront profit to build them with gov. subsidies. Once they are built, everyone runs for the hills as no more money in them. I've seen these in person, the picture here actually looks good. They have not run in years and just sit rusting.

[pollyannaish]

But hey! We'll have all the stupid windmills we want. (I hate them. They are a blight.)

 

And they kill birds.

 

So is that rust, or bird blood?

 

And bats! Heh.

[pollyannaish]

All of the money in wind farms is the upfront profit to build them with gov. subsidies. Once they are built, everyone runs for the hills as no more money in them. I've seen these in person, the picture here actually looks good. They have not run in years and just sit rusting.

 

Very true. It's a huge debacle. The government even provided grants for all kinds of wind generated power careers and the community college here built an amazing green energy/jobs building to house it. It's dried up because their are no jobs in the field. It's been three years.

[Rokke]

I think it was here that I read the English government has put a freeze on new wind farms. They are only producing 25% of the electricity they were projected to produce. No where close to covering costs.

Idiots. They're universal. At least the Brits are willing to call a spade a spade.

[pollyannaish]

I think that should be a bumper sticker: Idiots—They're universal.

 

HA!

[Valin]

WSJ: Saudi America

The U.S. will be the world's leading energy producer, if we allow it.

 

(Snip)

One point to keep in mind is that this U.S. energy revolution wasn't inevitable and could still be undone. The Sierra Club and other environmentalists are demonizing fracking the way they have coal, never mind that increased use of natural gas instead of coal is helping to reduce carbon emissions. They hate carbon energy—period.

 

New York state has imposed a moratorium on fracking, even while the economy of neighboring Pennsylvania is being transformed by the exploitation of the Marcellus Shale that lies under both states. The French, who import 98% of their natural gas, have also banned fracking, despite sitting on shale reserves estimated to be the second-largest in Europe. The British, unsure of what to do, are supposed to make a fracking announcement sometime next month.

 

The biggest potential threat may come from federal regulation in Mr. Obama's second term. Though he tried to take credit for the fracking revolution in his second debate with Mitt Romney, his EPA has long wanted to supplant state regulators and will grab any opportunity to do so. Perhaps the election of pro-fracking Democrats like soon-to-be Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota (home to the monster Bakken Shale field) can give the new energy revolution some needed bipartisan buy-in.

(Snip)