I Got Your Energy Security Right Here

The Toronto Globe and Mail yesterday reported how vast discoveries of new North American energy sources could “reflect the beginning of the end for U.S. dependence on Mideast oil.” According to the American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. produced more crude oil in October than it had in any single month in history. And the article explained how the U.S. wlll be a “major natural gas exporter” within a decade, thanks to technological advances:

The two countries signed an accord (the U.S.-China Shale Gas Resource Initiative) last year to reflect this coming U.S. energy reversal. “The United States,” the accord notes, “is a world leader in shale gas technology.” The accord commits the U.S. to deliver this technology to China – and, by implication, requires China to open further its oil and gas industry to Western companies.

With rising production from shale fields, the U.S. surpassed Russia last year to become the world’s largest supplier of natural gas. Shale now accounts for 10 percent of the country’s natural gas production – up from 2 percent in 1990.

Of course, Pennsylvania is a big player:

For natural gas, the U.S. has the four largest fields in the world: the Haynesville field in Louisiana (with production up by 77 percent in 2009); the Fayetteville field in Arkansas and the Marcellus field in Pennsylvania (both with production up by 50 percent); and the Barnett field in Texas and Oklahoma (with production up by double-digit increases). The EIA reports that proven U.S. reserves of natural gas increased last year by 11 percent to 284 trillion cubic feet – the highest level since 1971.

Clearly, U.S. energy development promises to provide a tremendous boost to the economy in the coming years − that is, if the perpetrators of lies and myths about hydraulic fracturing, as well as promoters of other made-up dangers of fossil fuels, don’t stand in the way.

Hat tip: The Washington Examiner’s Mark Tapscott.