by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
There is a revolution going on in America. But it is not part of the Tea Party or the loud Occupy Wall Street protests.<\/p>\n
Instead, massive new reserves of gas, oil, and coal are being discovered almost everywhere in the United States, due to revolutionary methods of exploration and exploitation such as fracking and horizontal drilling. Current prices of over $100 a barrel make even complex efforts at recovery enormously profitable.<\/p>\n
There were always known to be additional untapped reserves of oil and gas in the petroleum-rich Gulf of Mexico, off America\u2019s shores, and in the American West and Alaska. But even the top energy experts never imagined just how vast the energy there was \u2014 or that it was also beneath far more unlikely places such as South Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. Some studies suggest the United States has now expanded its known potential gas and oil reserves tenfold.<\/p>\n
The strategic and economic repercussions of these new finds are staggering, and remind us how a once energy-independent and thereby confident American economy soared to world dominance in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
America will soon again be able to supply all of its own domestic natural-gas needs \u2014 perhaps for the next 90 years at present rates of consumption. We have recently become a net exporter of refined gas and diesel fuel, and already have cut imported oil from OPEC countries by 1 million barrels per day.<\/p>\n
With expanded exploration and conservation, the United States could also eventually supply half of its own petroleum needs. If we were to eliminate 5 million barrels of our current daily 9 million barrels of imported petroleum, the annual savings could reach nearly $200 billion per year. Eventually, the new gas and oil could add 1.6 million new jobs and up to nearly $1 trillion in federal revenue.<\/p>\n
That windfall would cut out about a third of our present annual trade deficit \u2014 apart from additional income earned by new natural-gas exportation. \u201cInvestments,\u201d \u201cshovel-ready jobs,\u201d and \u201cstimulus\u201d would finally become more than empty sloganeering.<\/p>\n
But America\u2019s new oil discoveries are not occurring in a vacuum. The entire Western Hemisphere is enjoying a fossil-fuel boom, from northern Canada to Brazil and Argentina. America\u2019s backyard will soon be comparable to the oil-rich Persian Gulf, keeping more American money \u2014 and troops \u2014 at home. Illegal immigration should taper off as well, as oil-rich Latin American economies reap huge cash bonanzas. Hugo Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s Venezuela will soon be simply one of many regional exporters.<\/p>\n
Current crises in American foreign policy \u2014 Iran\u2019s efforts to obtain the bomb, the protection of an embattled Israel, stopping the funding of radical Islamists \u2014 might be freed from the worries of perennial OPEC threats of cutoffs and price spikes.<\/p>\n
Federal subsidies for inefficient corn-based-ethanol production in the Midwest also could cease. That would save the Treasury billions of dollars and allow millions of American acres to return to food production to supply an increasingly hungry world.<\/p>\n
The Obama administration\u2019s efforts to subsidize \u201cgreen\u201d energy so far have proved both uneconomical and occasionally corrupt \u2014 as we have seen in the Solyndra affair. Yet more gas and oil can offer America critical breathing space until better technology makes wind, solar, and electric power more price-competitive \u2014 without massive federal subsidies and a marked reduction in our standard of living.<\/p>\n
Of course, there are sizable interests opposed to the new American gas and oil finds \u2014 not all of them foreign governments, but instead reflected in the current Obama-administration policy of halting new pipelines, placing moratoriums on offshore drilling, and putting lucrative federal lands off-limits. Yet if the United States does not produce much of the fuel that it uses, will the oil-exporting Gulf sheikdoms, Nigeria, or Iran better protect the world\u2019s environment than American-based oil companies? Would our oil dollars or theirs be less likely to fuel terrorism, illegal arms sales, and rogue regimes?<\/p>\n
For the American poor and unemployed, how liberal is it, really, to keep energy prices high while stalling millions of high-paying private-sector jobs that would both lower government costs in entitlements and empower the working classes?<\/p>\n
In the current presidential campaign, three issues dominate: national security, fiscal solvency, and high unemployment. Development of America\u2019s vast new gas and oil finds would address all three at once.<\/p>\n
The idea of vastly expanding American gas and oil production in the 21st century is almost as unbelievable as the present administration\u2019s apparent reluctance to capitalize on its windfall.<\/p>\n
\u00a92011 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services There is a revolution going on in America. But it is not part of the Tea Party or the loud Occupy Wall Street protests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[208,11,546],"tags":[12,1026,1057,547,405,475,338,213,223,514,205],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-lr","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12144,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/victor-davis-hanson-chaos-in-europe-its-tricky-being-worlds-largest-importer-of-gas-oil-and-critic-too\/","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":0},"title":"Victor Davis Hanson: Chaos in Europe \u2013 It’s tricky being world’s largest importer of gas, oil and critic, too","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Fox News Despite its cool Green parties and ambitious wind and solar\u00a0agendas, Europe remains by far the world\u2019s largest importer of oil and natural gas. Oil output in the North Sea and off the coast of Norway is declining, and the European Union is quietly\u00a0looking\u00a0for fossil\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":871,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-second-oil-revolution\/","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":1},"title":"The Second Oil Revolution","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The world was reinvented in the 1970s by soaring oil prices and massive transfers of national wealth. It could be again if the price of petroleum crashes \u2014 a real possibility given the amazing estimates about the new gas and oil reserves on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Energy"","block_context":{"text":"Energy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/energy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":877,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/faith-based-energy-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":2},"title":"Faith-Based Energy Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services When the summer driving season starts soon, and tension heats up over Iran, gas may reach $5 a gallon. Nothing bothers voters more than paying an extra $20 or $30 every time they fill up. In times like these, they soon might prefer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Energy"","block_context":{"text":"Energy","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/energy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":632,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-world-is-changing-minute-by-minute\/","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":3},"title":"The World Is Changing Minute by Minute","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We are witnessing a seismic shift in global affairs. The shake-up is a perfect storm of political, demographic, and technological change that will soon make the world as we have known it for the last 30 years almost unrecognizable. Since the mid-1980s there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The EU"","block_context":{"text":"The EU","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/the-eu\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1674,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/railing-against-reality\/","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":4},"title":"Railing Against Reality","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Last week, protests broke out again in Europe, from Rome to London. The monthlong Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York have spread. The current unrest follows this summer's riots in London and flash mob incidents in US cities. In 2009 and 2010,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Political Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Political Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/political-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6292,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-death-of-populism\/","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":5},"title":"The Death of Populism","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Plenty of pleaders for rich and poor, but no politician speaks for the common man. by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0National Review Online Occupy Wall Streeters claimed that they were populists. Their ideological opposites, the Tea Partiers, said they were, too. Both became polarizing. 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