A Forbes story by Peter Ferrara makes a compelling case that the American Energy Renaissance Act introduced March 27 by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) provides comprehensive liberation of energy producers to maximize energy production, job creation and prosperity.
Ferrara writes: Despite the war-like hostility of the Obama Administration to the traditional carbon based energy that fueled the industrial revolution, the entrepreneurship and modern technology of America’s private economy is producing a boom in oil and gas production that is overwhelming President Obama. America has already surged to become the world’s number one natural gas producer. It is also now the world’s fastest growing oil producer, already third in the world. And America has the resources to be the world’s number one coal producer as well.
Not that President Obama did not try to stop this American success story, contrary to the grossly misleading rhetoric in his speeches taking credit for it. The Congressional Research Service recently reported that the portion of total natural gas production from federally controlled lands and offshore declined by 40% from Fiscal Year 2009 to Fiscal Year 2013. The portion of total oil production from such federally controlled areas declined by 32% over that period.
That was achieved by slowing permits for exploration and development of oil and gas in federally controlled areas, imposing moratoria on already granted permits (held to be contrary to federal law in federal court), and even withdrawing already granted permits. These policies have hurt federal revenues from oil and gas royalties, and taxes that would have been paid by oil and gas producers.
But the explosion of oil and gas production on private and state owned lands, so far outside of federal reach, has more than made up for the losses of possible production in federally controlled areas. That explosion of private oil and gas production has been due to the advances and development of the process of hydraulic fracking.