You don’t just live in the greatest country on earth, you live in the wealthiest in terms of energy. The good news is that all of our major problems are self-created by the political class. The answer is in the ground. When we extract it, the world won’t just look to us, they’ll depend on us. An economic boom will follow unlike any you’ve known. You won’t read this in an American newspaper, but its already common knowledge in the UK. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard explains.
Flip this baby upside down. That's what the next 10 years could look like for the US says the London Telegraph. That's if DC politicians get out of the way.
The American phoenix is slowly rising again. Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy …
Assumptions that the Great Republic must inevitably spiral into economic and strategic decline – so like the chatter of the late 1980s, when Japan was in vogue – will seem wildly off the mark by then.
Telegraph readers already know about the “shale gas revolution” that has turned America into the world’s number one producer of natural gas, ahead of Russia.
Less known is that the technology of hydraulic fracturing – breaking rocks with jets of water – will also bring a quantum leap in shale oil supply, mostly from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas, and other reserves across the Mid-West.
“The US was the single largest contributor to global oil supply growth last year, with a net 395,000 barrels per day (b/d),” said Francisco Blanch from Bank of America, comparing the Dakota fields to a new North Sea.
Total US shale output is “set to expand dramatically” as fresh sources come on stream, possibly reaching 5.5m b/d by mid-decade. This is a tenfold rise since 2009.
The US already meets 72pc of its own oil needs, up from around 50pc a decade ago.
“The implications of this shift are very large for geopolitics, energy security, historical military alliances and economic activity. As US reliance on the Middle East continues to drop, Europe is turning more dependent and will likely become more exposed to rent-seeking behaviour from oligopolistic players,” said Mr Blanch.
And yet we blow billions on the Solyndras? The libs know that if the American people ever find out the truth, they’ll be set back a generation. No one will need them and their government handouts. This must terrify them.
