The US Is Now World's No. 1 Energy Producer

This is simply an incredible story. From The Wall Street Journal -- front section, second news story, second only to the government shutdown.

The U.S. is overtaking Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas, a startling shift that is reshaping markets and eroding the clout of traditional energy-rich nations.

U.S. energy output has been surging in recent years, a comeback fueled by shale-rock formations of oil and natural gas that was unimaginable a decade ago. A Wall Street Journal analysis of global data shows that the U.S. is on track to pass Russia as the world's largest producer of oil and gas combined this year—if it hasn't already.

The U.S. ascendance comes as Russia has struggled to maintain its energy output and has yet to embrace technologies such as hydraulic fracturing that have boosted American reserves.

"This is a remarkable turn of events," said Adam Sieminski, head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration. "This is a new era of thinking about market conditions, and opportunities created by these conditions, that you wouldn't in a million years have dreamed about."

I guess that's the difference between a US EIA bureaucrat and Harold Hamm. 

This is happening despite the US government trying at all levels, in cahoots with mainstream media and activist environmentalists to shut down the oil and gas industry and kill the coal industry. I particularly enjoyed this line:

The U.S. ascendance comes as Russia has struggled to maintain its energy output and has yet to embrace technologies such as hydraulic fracturing that have boosted American reserves.

"The US government" appears, also, to question whether it should "embrace" technologies such as hydraulic fracturing. The EPA/Department of Interior appear to be trying to turn the clock back as they regulate fracking.

"We" are only where we are due to free market capitalism, the vision of entrepreneurs, and the incredibly good work by roughnecks. The US government has impeded at every opportunity.