As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s Declaration of Independence on Friday, it would also be appropriate to take a moment to celebrate those states who are currently leading our nation down the path towards energy independence. No issue facing America today is more important than where we will continue to access sources of abundant and affordable energy.
Energy heats and cools our homes and office buildings, fuels the automobiles that get us to work, facilitates the growing and transport of the food that sustains us, serves as the feed stock for thousands of products that make our daily lives more convenient and raise our standard of living. It is literally the life blood of our economy, and has been for more than 150 years.
For too many years, our country has found itself dependent on oil imported from other nations, many of whom are hostile to U.S. goals and ideals. As we move into the future, our increasing independence from these foreign supplies of oil is key to enhancing our national security and affording our leaders geopolitical advantages that they have not enjoyed for many decades.
In the U.S. today, many states are playing increasing roles in this drive towards energy independence, but three of those states are clearly leading the way: Texas, Pennsylvania and North Dakota.
While Texas has long been known for its extraordinary oil and natural gas production, this week marked a historic achievement for the state’s energy production. According to a new report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the Lone Star state is now producing 36 percent of America’s oil – rivaling some of OPEC’s largest oil suppliers. From the EIA:
“Texas production topped 3.0 million bbl/d for the first time since the late 1970s, more than doubling production in the past three years, and North Dakota production broke 1.0 million bbl/d for the first time in history, nearly tripling its production over the same period… Gains in Texas crude oil production come primarily from counties that contain unconventional tight oil and shale reservoirs in the Eagle Ford Shale in the Western Gulf Basin, where drilling has increasingly targeted oil-rich areas, and multiple reservoirs within the Permian Basin in West Texas that have seen a significant increase in horizontal, oil-directed drilling.”
Thanks to this tremendous production from Texas oil plays, the state is now toe to toe in production levels with Iraq, one of OPEC largest oil producers. As the Houston Chronicle describes:
“Nearly as much crude flowed from Texas as from Iraq, which was the second largest OPEC producer in April at 3.2 million barrels per day, according to estimates from
As Texas leads the United States and the globe in energy production, states outside of Texas are also experiencing tremendous growth. In North Dakota, oil production has tripled in the last three years while the state experiences record low unemployment levels, and the nation's fastest-growing state economy. Indeed, when combined together, Texas and North Dakota now produce almost half of all the oil produced in the U.S. Given that overall U.S. oil production has increased by 50% since 2006, that is an amazing accomplishment for these two states and the state policymakers who have played such important roles in making it happen.
Meanwhile, natural gas production continues to soar across the United States, reaching a record of 68.7 billion cubic feet (Bcf) output per day in March 2014. Texas also plays a significant role there, producing almost 30% of all U.S. natural gas from a variety of regions and formations, but the biggest single natural gas field in the country today – the Marcellus Shale – is centered in the state of Pennsylvania. At the end of 2013, the Marcellus field alone accounted for 18% of overall U.S. natural gas production, and that percentage has only increased in the first half of 2014.
While the Marcellus underlies portions of other states, like Ohio, West Virginia and New York, the great preponderance of that production takes place in PA, which is appropriate given that the U.S. oil industry was born in that state more than 150 years ago. The leaders in Pennsylvania should be celebrated this July 4 for persevering to bring all the benefits energy development brings to the people of their state in the face of a withering assault from a vast array of dishonest anti-development conflict groups and constant interference by the EPA and other arms of the federal government. Contrast that performance to the utter failure of leadership in neighboring New York, which continues to deny its people the rights to their property and resources for going on six years now, and you see the real magnitude of what Pennsylvania has achieved in the energy realm
What Pennsylvania has done doesn’t just benefit Pennsylvanians: it benefits our entire country. The availability of massive new supplies of affordable, stable natural gas has led to a rebirth of all manner of major manufacturing industries that had for decades been shipping their capital investments and jobs overseas. Now, hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions in capital investment have returned to this country, as this energy-generated renaissance has basically been the lone bright spot in an otherwise moribund economy.
Get out a map and draw lines from North Dakota down to Texas and then back up to Pennsylvania. If you draw the lines straight, you get a “V” for “Victory”. If you draw them with a curve, you get a big ol’ smiley face. Either way, you get a reason to celebrate this 4th of July, as these three great states form the axis of real leadership that is marching our country towards its Declaration of Energy Independence.
God Bless Texas, North Dakota and Pennsylvania, and God Bless America this July 4.
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