thelimbaughletter/ DESPITE Obama: We’re No. 1 in Oil “Some [opec] member countries are really suffering from U.S. shale oil.” — unnamed opec official, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 5/30/13 The U.S. energy industry, after decades of stagnation, has taken off like a rocket, leaving Saudi Arabia in the dust. In August, the Energy Information Administration [eia] released international energy production data for April, the sixth straight month with the United States as the world’s top petroleum producer. Folks, we are now the global oil superpower. Have you heard about this? I didn’t think so. It’s a huge story with enormous consequences for America, but virtually ignored by the state-run media. Here’s the scorecard: The U.S. produced 12.09 million barrels per day [mbpd] of petroleum in April, compared with second place Saudi Arabia, which produced 11.2 mbpd, and third place Russia, which produced 10.5 mbpd. We are now producing more oil than we’re importing. Let me repeat: U.S. oil imports have dropped below U.S. domestic production, with imports representing just 40 percent of demand. Another shocker: most of those imports are from Canada and other Western Hemisphere producers; America today gets a mere 28 percent of its imports from the Persian Gulf. On July 10, International Energy Agency Director Maria van der Hoeven declared that when it comes to oil production, “North America has set off a supply shock that is sending ripples throughout the world … A real game changer in every way.” The U.S. also leads the world in the production of natural gas, so much so that, according to the Institute for Energy Research, we are now poised to actually export it. FRACKING REVOLUTION. The sudden emergence of the United States as the world’s energy Top Dog is due to innovative extraction techniques from shale rock referred to as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Pioneered by Texas oilman George P. Mitchell in the 1990s, the fracking process injects water mixed with sand and chemicals into a well at high pressure. The pressurized fluid fractures the shale rock and releases trapped oil and natural gas. The use of fracking, combined with precision directional drilling, has created new economical vistas of energy extraction in several states, most notably the immense Marcellus Shale region in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, and West Virginia. Folks, it is no exaggeration to say that this technology changed the trajectory of the world economy. Thanks to fracking, according to Manhattan Institute energy expert Mark Mills in National Review, the U.S. “stands to gain over four million jobs from expanding hydrocarbon production, as well as over $2 trillion in total economic benefits” — with each fracking position creating six related jobs in areas from “manufacturing and education to health care and information services.” The Financial Times reported last year that since 2009, over 600,000 new, well-paying jobs had been created from the fracking industry. But the even bigger impact will continue to be global. As aei’s Mark J. Perry notes, “America’s shale revolution is taking us from ‘resource scarcity’ to a new era of ‘resource abundance’ as the U.S. consistently produces more petroleum products than Saudi Arabia … and has produced more petroleum than all of the countries in Europe, Central America, and South America combined for six straight months.” OPEC HARDEST HIT. The Saudis are worried. In late July, The Journal reported that Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal sent an open letter to Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi in May, warning that the U.S. shale oil and gas boom will hurt opec. Noting that demand for their oil is down, Prince Alwaleed cautioned that the Saudi kingdom “is facing a threat with the continuation of its near-complete reliance on oil, especially as 92 percent of the budget for this year depends on oil.” In an article titled, “Saudis Sweat Bullets as Energy Revolution Changes the Rules,” foreign policy expert Walter Russell Mead observes that falling production, demand, and prices have significantly hurt the Saudi Basic Industries Corp [sabic] earnings. Change has been so dramatic that a recent Global Post article asks, “Could Fracking Make the Persian Gulf Irrelevant?” Well, no — but it is true that the smaller opec members have been devastated. According to The Wall Street Journal, from 2011 to 2012 Nigeria, Algeria, and Angola together saw their shipments to the U.S. fall by a whopping 41 percent. Russia, too, is uneasy. Vladimir Putin made a big show of his “concern” about environmental damage to America, claiming that “fracking’s bad effect on the landscape of the U.S.’s east coast could be seen by flying over the area in a helicopter.” Uh-huh. As The Wall Street Journal notes, Putin actually “is worried about the impact … [a] surging shale gas supply will have on [Russian] state-owned gas giant Gazprom.” Especially if the U.S. starts exporting gas to Europe. “The extra competition isn’t a great prospect for Gazprom — or Russian politicians, who rely on oil and gas tax revenues to balance the books.” FOREIGN-BANKROLLED OPPOSITION. Unsurprisingly, both opec and Russia appear to be in bed with environmentalist wackos in order to try to halt the fracking momentum. Can you say, “useful idiots”? According to University of Houston Professor Craig Pirrong, energy markets director of the Global Energy Management Institute, there are “widespread suspicions that Gazprom bankrolls anti-fracking campaigns and organizations, particularly in Europe.” Closer to home, the Heritage Foundation has reported that Matt Damon’s anti-fracking movie, “Promised Land,” was funded in part by Abu Dhabi Media. That’s a government-run company for United Arab Emirates, which happens to be not only a member of opec but one of the world’s largest oil exporters. Hmmm. Both “Promised Land” and Josh Fox’s anti-fracking pseudo-documentaries “Gasland” and “Gasland 2” use disinformation and outright lies to scare viewers about the supposed danger fracking poses to groundwater, even though numerous studies have shown the claim is false. Most of the outrage over fracking comes from two clips from “Gasland” that show well water set on fire as it pours from the kitchen faucets of Colorado residents Mike Markham and Renee McClure. In fact, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission tested Markham’s water in 2008 and concluded fracking had nothing to do with his flaming tapwater; the home’s well had been drilled into a pocket of methane. Likewise, the explosive faucet in McClure’s home was found to be “naturally occurring biogenic methane gas in well and no impact from oil and gas [fracking] activities.” Similarly, the U.S. Geological Survey sampled 127 wells in the Fayetteville Shale region of Arkansas where fracking is being conducted, according to Breitbart. The results: the water was actually cleaner than the historical samples to which they were compared. Mark P. Mills points out in National Review that exiting epa head Lisa Jackson herself admitted to Congress there are no “proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water.” HOGGING CREDIT. Meanwhile, Obama is trying to have it both ways. At every opportunity, he pats himself on the back for America’s private-sector energy productivity triumph — which he had nothing to do with, zip, zero, nada, except make it more difficult to achieve. Obama’s official White House website touts, “Domestic oil and natural gas production has increased every year President Obama has been in office,” and, “Since President Obama took office, America’s dependence on foreign oil has decreased every year.” Yeah, no thanks to you. Because the truth is, at the same time Obama has been making fracking’s scorecard his own, his Regime has done everything it can to halt or slow energy production on federal lands. OBAMA OBSTRUCTION. According to Bureau of Land Management [blm] figures, the number of well bores started on federal lands was 5,044 in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, right before the Immaculation. Compare that to 3,022 in 2012 — a 40 percent decrease, even as fracking techniques have dramatically improved. The number of new leases on federal lands had risen to 4,014 in 2006. But in 2012, there were only 1,729 new leases permitted — a decrease of 55 percent. As Wills Bush of the American Petroleum Institute told cns News, “Despite paying lip service to the need for more oil and natural gas development, a series of policy decisions by the [Obama] Administration has frustrated it, at least on federal lands and in federally controlled offshore areas.” House Energy and Commerce Committee member Rep. Cory Gardner (R, CO) points out oil and gas producers have “run into nothing but roadblocks and delays” in the Regime’s federal permit application process, according to The Washington Free Beacon. Dan Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, asserts that “on every front, when it comes to oil and gas production, [Obama’s] agencies have been doing less and less and making it harder and harder” to drill on federal lands. The usda’s Inspector General released a critical report in March pointing out that fewer than 4 percent of the 1,881 applications for drilling permits on public land were “recent,” or filed within the last 180 days, which “may be causing the federal government to forego revenue or prevent or delay the efforts of the private sector to provide energy to the public.” Which to liberals is the whole point. What the left refuses to admit is that the shale revolution they despise, according to Global Post, has “inadvertently pushed the United States into the forefront of the fight against global warming.” You and I know that manmade global warming is a crock, but by the left’s own standards, “the switch from coal to cheap natural gas in American electricity production [through fracking] means the United States has seen carbon emissions hit their lowest level since 1994, meaning it’s overtaken most European countries in meeting the goals of the Kyoto protocol.” Fracking has cleaned the air beyond lib regulators’ fondest wishes, greatly reducing America’s carbon footprint. MOVING GOALPOSTS. It doesn’t count. Instead, the left has changed the rules of the game, claiming that their real aim has never been to reduce carbon emissions, but rather to get rid of everything except green energy. Turns out the libs aren’t against “dependence on foreign oil”; they’re against oil, period. And any other energy source that provides America dominance and power. As the “Stop the Frack Attack” website declares, “We battle a persistent myth that gas is a ‘clean’ energy — which is not only false, but keeps us from moving towards truly clean energy and ending our reliance on fossil fuels.” Face it: politicians have been b.s.-ing us about energy for generations, especially when it comes to calls for “energy independence” throughout the last four decades [see box, above]. The left’s war against the best hope the U.S. has for 100 percent energy independence, fracking, has revealed their deceit. As Steve Everley, spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, told The Washington Free Beacon, “Opponents of hydraulic fracking are never forced to answer a simple question: Why do they oppose a process that’s decreasing our reliance on foreign sources of energy?” Why indeed. Bottom line, America’s new energy abundance is affording us the opportunity to watch the dwindling influence of our enemies and those who bankroll our enemies — such as Iran and Saudi royalty who have funded terrorism via the Wahhabi movement. By reducing our need for opec oil, we are not only strengthening America, we are weakening these rogue powers. As Walter Russell Mead puts it, “the Gulf region, Russia, Venezuela, and other former oil monopolies will see their power and influence decrease in the face of a new American-led energy order” — which includes Brazil, China, Canada, and Israel. Even Obama can’t stop us. THEY HAD NO CLUE Politicians Who Didn’t “End Our Dependence on Foreign Oil” “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.” — Richard Nixon, January 30, 1974 “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977 … A massive program must be initiated to increase energy supply, to cut demand, and provide new standby emergency programs to achieve the independence we want by 1985.” — Gerald Ford, January 15, 1975 “This difficult effort will be the ‘moral equivalent of war’ … [Among] the goals we set: … Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported…” — Jimmy Carter, April 18, 1977 “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 — never.” — Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979 “[T]he nation’s growing reliance on imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products threaten[s] the nation’s security.” — Bill Clinton, February 16, 1995 “[W]e have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.” — George W. Bush, January 31, 2006 “I think that in ten years, we can reduce our dependence so that we no longer have to import oil … That’s why I’ve focused on putting resources into solar, wind, biodiesel, geothermal.” — Barack Obama, October 15, 2008 The only solution: get government out of the way and let Americans innovate.
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 20:39:41 +0000
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