Thomas Friedman on America, Oil, the Economy and the Environment

Posted by Kendall Harmon

....Bloomberg News reported last week that “the U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency. ... Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that, where the government warned four years ago of a critical need to boost imports, it now may approve an export terminal.” As a result, “the U.S. has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources over the last six years to an estimated 81 percent through the first 10 months of 2011.” This transformation could make the U.S. the world’s top energy producer by 2020, raise more tax revenue, free us from worrying about the Middle East, and, if we’re smart, build a bridge to a much cleaner energy future.

All of this is good news, but it will come true at scale only if these oil and gas resources can be extracted in an environmentally sustainable manner. This can be done right, but we need a deal between environmentalists and the oil and gas industry to lock it in — now.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

6 Comments
Posted February 26, 2012 at 1:30 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. APB wrote:

Remember, to the Green Movement, these sources of energy are a terrible problem.  ANY source of energy, even if it is completely clean and inexhaustible, is a problem.

February 26, 7:25 pm | [comment link]
2. Capt. Father Warren wrote:

Who believes we are actually domestically self-producing 81% of our total energy demand?  And buried in the article is this little jewel But one molecule of leaked gas contributes as much to global warming as 25 molecules of burned gas.....would love to see some scientific justification for that statement.  Propane or butane will oxidize to the same end state irregardless whether that happens over years in nature or the blink of an eye in a steam boiler. 

This article sounds like it was written for Friedman by the White House.

February 26, 7:53 pm | [comment link]
3. AnglicanFirst wrote:

“But one molecule of leaked gas contributes as much to global warming as 25 molecules of burned gas…..”

Ummm?
Bad science behind that that comment about “leaked gas.”

If you were to fly in a helicopter over the pine and fir tree forests of the Adirondacks or the Smoky Mountains on a hot summer’s day and collect ‘scoop samples’ of the air over those forests, you would discover that that aromatic hydrocarbon content of the sampled gases would far far exceed permissable emissions from most industrial activities.

To wit, our ‘green natural environment’ has been polluting the Earth’s atmosphere for eons.

February 26, 8:29 pm | [comment link]
4. Dave B wrote:

It is my understanding that with the new fracking technology and discovery of new oil in old fields (Bakken) along wiht new discovery of oil fields in texas America now has about 1.3 TRILLION barrels of oil.  The amount of production we see today is the result of Bush increasing permits by 70% over Clinton.  Obama has cut permits by 70% what they were under Bush and slowed the permiting process.  Recently Obama said “We can’t drill our way out of high gas prices.” I thank we can if Obama would allow it!

February 27, 5:35 pm | [comment link]
5. Dave B wrote:

Should read I think we can!

February 27, 5:36 pm | [comment link]
6. Capt. Father Warren wrote:

I think we can if Obama would allow it!

He’s had > 3 years to perform.  I am voting to fire him.

February 27, 7:53 pm | [comment link]
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