Thursday, July 26, 2012

Incredible Post at Politico.com: US Could Become Energy Exporter

A huge "thank you" to a reader. I would have missed this story at Politico.com:
We have the potential to become the world’s swing supplier of energy. For the U.S. economy and its North American neighbors, Mexico and Canada, the reality is nothing short of revolutionary.

This felicitous scenario is now possible because the energy world has been turned upside-down. While policymakers globally have focused on alternatives to hydrocarbons, from solar and wind to plant matter, the game-changing technologies that have emerged are in the traditional sectors — unleashing staggering quantities of natural gas, oil and coal.
Politico.com is a politic-centric blog. Why the following:
In hydrocarbon-friendly states, tax coffers are bulging and job markets are booming, largely from production on private and state-controlled lands. Ohio alone stands to reap 200,000 new jobs by 2015 and $22 billion in economic growth. In the Western states, a mere few dozen proposed oil and gas projects could generate 120,000 jobs and $400 billion cumulative benefits over 15 years.
It turns out that Ohio is the #1 swing state for the November presidential election. Google it and you will find that Ohio is the state most visited by President Obama. Then google "ohio-Obama-oil" and see what you get.

Ohio is mentioned on the first page of the story; the Bakken is not mentioned at all. Huh? What? Maybe I missed it.
There have indeed been real technology gains in alternatives. But many analysts act as if the hydrocarbon industries operate in a parallel universe — where two decades of profound advances in information and materials sciences never took place. For it’s with hydrocarbons that new technologies have been transformative.

With these advances, the U.S. has emerged as the world’s fastest-growing producer of oil and natural gas. Production growth these past few years has reversed a 40-year decline. All this has happened in an environment either hostile to or, at best, neutral toward hydrocarbons.
That in bold? I've been saying that for years. I've shortened it to "permitorium."  Can you imagine where the US would be if there was some common sense in the White House to offset ideology?

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