Energy Independence
by
Paul Trog

Did you know that the USA became the world’s largest natural gas producer in 2009, surpassing Russia, according to the New York Times of October 26th, 2011, Energy Section p. F 7?

THE MEDIA DID NOT TRUMPET THAT ACHIEVEMENT.

Why not? The article states further on, that shale gas production in the USA now is more than five times as great as in 2006. In the Wall Street Journal of September 30th, 2011, on the Opinion Page (A13) Mr. Lucian Pugliaresi, the president of the Energy Policy Research Foundation writes that natural gas production in the USA has surged 25% in the last four years, “…yet just a few years ago, government reports and long hours of expert testimony on Capitol Hill outlined the need for the US to take action to address a growing shortage of natural gas. A crash program was called for to build receiving facilities to import liquefied natural gas (LNG). Many receiving facilities were built at the cost of billions of dollars as investors bought into the government assessments. Today, these facilities are operating at less than 10% capacity.”

Some of these receiving facilities are being retooled for export as we speak!

In an article that appeared in the Financial Times on November 1st 2011, Ed Crooks, its U.S. Industry and Energy Editor writes: “After a decade in which extracting gas from shale has opened up reserves that could last the U.S. 100 years, a breakthrough is also happening in oil. Ending a long reliance on imports from afar is now a realistic prospect, with geopolitical as well as economic consequences.” This development progressed steadily in the past 10 years. WHY WERE WE NOT INFORMED ACCORDINGLY AND REGULARLY BY THE MEDIA? In the light of the fact that petroleum’s current share of the U.S. deficit on trade in goods is a whopping 44%, this is a disgrace!!!

Luckily, the surge in domestic supply could not be thwarted by the ideologically driven leftists and Marxists in the environment movements, who are out to sabotage every attempt to reach American energy independence and use their powerful media allies in achieving this purpose. The suppression of the fact that the USA is at present the leading natural gas producer in the world should be proof enough.

Now however, the genie is out of the bottle.

Mr.Pugliaresi goes on to describe in another paragraph, why an END RUN around the imobilism imposed by various lobbies thwarting energy self-sufficiency for years, was successful :

“The shale gas revolution started in Texas, migrated quickly to Arkansas, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania and then leaped to North Dakota – where the technology for producing shale gas was applied to oil development. Even New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, no longer wishing to miss out on the economic opportunity for his state, has pulled back from his state’s comprehensive ban on hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling for shale gas.” “What do these states have in common besides interesting geology? Their federal land holdings are extremely small and mineral rights are in private hands. Thus landowners were not prohibited from coming to terms with oil and gas companies, providing immediate opportunities to test new drilling technologies. Knowledge gained in one region could move quickly to another. Regulatory and environmental reviews were largely the responsibilities of state and local governments, and disagreements could often be resolved at the local level.” “Contrast the shale gas revolution to oil and gas development on the vast lands owned by the federal government. There access to reserves is burdened by endless federal environmental reviews, congressional oversight, permitting delays and BUROCRATS WHO INSIST THAT OIL AND GAS RESOURCES DO NOT EXIST IN AREAS OF INTEREST.TO OIL AND GAS COMPANIES.“

The US Geological Survey has continually low-balled their assessments of the crude oil reserves in the Bakken of North Dakota and northern Montana as well as in the Austin Chalk formation in Texas and Louisiana, to name but two instances. It is difficult to attribute assessment blunders of such magnitude solely to over-cautiousness or bureaucratic incompetence when American national security and foreign policy are profoundly affected by false information.

“In 2009” writes Mr. Crooks regarding American oil production …”U.S. output started to grow again, led by off-shore production in the Gulf of Mexico, then on-shore tight oil. techniques such as those being used in North Dakota are being tried in tight oil reserves all over North America: in the Eagle Ford shale and Permian basin in Texas and the Utica shale in Ohio and Pennsylvania. HIS Cera forecasts that U.S. tight oil production will rise from 900.000 b/d this year to 2.9m b/d in 2020 – roughly half today’s total U.S. output.” Already, America has cut the share of its oil consumption met by imports from more than 60% in 2005 to 47% last year. *It’s amazing how far we have come in just four short years. And we’re just seeing the beginning of it” said Clay Bretches of Anadarko Petroleum.

Both the Bakken and the Austin Chalk formation are in the midst of an unstoppable oil boom despite all the efforts to suppress production expansion by the bureaucracy’s use of environmental technicalities. However, the building of the Keystone XL pipeline, intended to transport oil from the Bakken and the oil sands of Canada to the Texas refineries in Houston, has been halted by a scandalous decision of the EPA based on flimsy ecological reasons.

At this point, the calamitous economic situation confronting the United States demands intelligence revelations similar to the 1997 release of the Army Intelligence VENONA files that clearly inculpated, with undeniable proof, Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs as communist spies. We need to know which agencies and/or lobbies representing ideological or economic interests inside or outside the USA are diligently pursuing policies that destroy America.

Paul J. Trog, Innsbruck, 30/11/11

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