Every president since Richard Nixon has promised to make America energy independent, but we still import 9 million barrels of oil a day with much of it coming from the Middle East and OPEC. Now for the first time in a half century — thanks to the shale oil and gas revolution — the dream of American energy independence is not just a pipe dream but easily achievable if the next president takes the right steps to make it happen.
This Made in America energy strategy means we could stop draining our economy of about $200 billion a year that could be used to rebuild our own country. This isn’t just about the economy. We know from intelligence reports that as much as $500 million a year of petrodollars find their way into the coffers of terrorist networks like ISIS.
To achieve American energy self-sufficiency I’m not talking about the left’s strange infatuation with building more windmills (sorry Hillary). We only get about 5 percent of our energy from windmills and solar panels.
What I am talking about is about taking the strategic steps necessary to make the United States the energy dominant force on the planet within five to 10 years by using our superabundance of fossil fuel resources. Thanks to the amazing made-in-America technological breakthroughs of the last decade — including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to get at shale oil and gas reserves — the United States now has at least 150 years of oil and natural gas resources on top of 500 years of coal. See chart.
Consider what has happened in less than a decade with oil production. In 2008 the United States produced about 5 million barrels a day. We hit 8.7 million in 2014[and could double that by 2025.
As we tap into the full potential of our tens of billions of shale oil and gas we can become the number one export nation on the planet. This could easily mean more than $1 trillion a year in oil, gas and also coal exports each year — perhaps exceeding 5 percent of GDP. This would mean as many as 6 million new jobs, according to the Institute for Energy Research.
