Energy Choices, Thanks to Our Energy Revolution
Mary Schaper
Posted August 5, 2014
America’s Oil Export Policy is Stuck in the ‘70s
Wall Street Journal (Thomas Tunstall): The unexpected increase in the production of shale oil, a light oil called condensate and natural gas in the U.S. has upended many assumptions about the U.S. energy market. As the oil and gas bonanza continues, the U.S. ban on crude-oil exports looks increasingly outdated, arbitrary and economically damaging. With Europe poised to endanger its gas supply by imposing more sanctions on its major supplier Russia, the possibility of energy exports from America takes on an important security dimension too.
Thanks to fracking and other unconventional shale-extraction technology, natural gas is the biggest energy story in the U.S. now. In the early 2000s, natural-gas pipeline companies—such as Cheniere and Freeport LNG—spent billions on import facilities as U.S. production decreased, to less than 19 trillion cubic feet in 2005 from roughly 22 trillion cubic feet in 1970.
Since 2006, however, natural-gas production in the U.S. has soared. The U.S. now produces more than 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year, the most in the country's more than 100-year history of gas exploration and production. As a result, billions of dollars are now being invested to convert many of the facilities designed to receive imported gas into export facilities.
Read more: http://on.wsj.com/1p8oODz
More industry news:
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Opinion: America’s Untapped Energy Weapon: http://politi.co/XB0cc2
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Armed with New Technology, Oil Drillers Revisit the Gulf’s Shallower Water: http://trib.in/1v7hZGG
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Marcellus Accounts for 40 Percent of U.S. Shale Natural Gas Production: http://1.usa.gov/UZcg4X
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The Real Cost of Ethanol: http://delonline.us/1npcbyK
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North Dakota’s Crude Production Continues to Grow on Strength of Bakken, Three Forks: http://bit.ly/1ooGm9q
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Opinion: Our Weird Energy Politics: http://bit.ly/1sroy2m
About The Author
Mary Schaper is a Digital Communications Manager for the American Petroleum Institute. She previously worked on Capitol Hill for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as Digital Director and for Senator Lisa Murkowski. Before coming to D.C., she spearheaded digital strategy for Murkowski's successful Senate write-in campaign in 2010. Schaper enjoys traveling and taking in the local culture alongside her husband, their son and loyal springer spaniel.