U.S. crude oil production is flirting with record highs heading into the new year, thanks to the technological nimbleness of shale oil drillers. The United States is so awash in oil that petroleum-rich Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil and natural gas company is reportedly interested in investing in the fertile Texas Permian Basin shale oil region. The Washington Post, 31 December 2017
In this year 2018, the end is not near. The only people in need of downsizing are the predictors of doom and other purveyors of science fiction. The population and environmental alarmists keep on bombing. And they keep getting it wrong, wrong and wronger. – Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, 3 January 2018
UK shale gas companies are expected to launch large-scale fracking of gas in the northern English counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire in 2018 amid protests of environmentalists against the authorities’ decision to grant permission for such activities. —Steel Guru, 28 December 2017
For some time, many people in the US and abroad have bought into the myth of American decline. Increasing dependence on energy imports was often cited as evidence. The shale revolution has changed that, demonstrating the combination of entrepreneurship, property rights, and capital markets that constitute the country’s underlying strength. In that sense, the shale revolution has also enhanced American soft power. –Joseph S Nye, Asia Times, 5 November 2017
The International Energy Agency (IEA) is rapidly becoming an uncritical part of the international climate policy engine. This helps no one in the longer run. To ensure continued relevance the Agency should return to its empirical, data-heavy roots, and remind politicians and civil servants that energy and climate policies are hypotheses about the world, and, as with all hypotheses, may be mistaken. –John Constable, GWPF Energy, 1 January 2018
