American workers and motorists got some badly-needed relief this week when the price of oil plunged to its lowest level in years. The oil price has fallen by about 25 percent since its peak back in June of $105 a barrel. This is translating to lower prices at the pump with many states now below $3 a gallon.
At present levels, these lower oil and gas prices are the equivalent of a $200 billion cost saving to American consumers and businesses. That's $200 billion a year we don't have to send to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other foreign nations. Now that's an economic stimulus par excellence.
There are many global reasons why gas prices are falling, but the major one isn't being widely reported. America has become in the last several years an energy-producing powerhouse. And sorry, Mr. President, I'm not talking about the niche "green energy" sources you are so weirdly fixated with.
Oil prices are falling because of changes in world supply and world demand. Demand has slowed because Europe is an economic wreck. But since 2008 the U.S. has increased our domestic supply by a gigantic 50 percent. This is a result of the astounding shale oil and gas revolution made possible by made-in-America technologies like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Already thanks to these inventions, the US has become the number one producer of natural gas. But oil production in states like Oklahoma, Texas and North Dakota has doubled in just six years.
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3 comments:
Yeah, so the Illinois farmers who have had oil wells on their land laid to rest for the last 50 years and are now all of a sudden pumping like crazy have no idea why oil prices are changing.
Gosh!
Who the heck knew.
Those wells were always prime stuff, and saved as our own oil reserves, and are now being pumped.
Just to let everyone know...
Where are they falling
gas cheaper in balt than here
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