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U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

blogs.marketwatch.com

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Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#11

Post by devx »

Can we end oil subsidies yet? Or have the oil companies not made enough trillions of dollars in profit since they started receiving subsidies a century ago?

I'm all for subsidies to accelerate an emerging market or technology, especially if it's "the future", but for 5-10 years at most, until it becomes mature enough to handle itself. Subsidizing highly profitable companies for a century is beyond stupid, because it also means those companies can be a lot more wasteful, knowing the taxpayers will cover the difference.

I'd ask for an end to Middle East oil-wars, too, but that seems even less likely to happen, so I'll happily take the ending of subsidies for now.

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#13

Post by maxerickson »

ck2 wrote: post #6
e13tra wrote: post #5

Looks like the new arms race is about digging your own environmental grave.

I think the country that is going to win will be biggest exporter of clean water in about two decades. Meanwhile China makes more solar panels than anyone in the world yet has the most filthy air.

If things are that bad, big movements on water and energy markets will influence each other (because you can use energy to purify or desalinate water).

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#14

Post by ihsw »

devx wrote: post #11

Can we end oil subsidies yet? Or have the oil companies not made enough trillions of dollars in profit since they started receiving subsidies a century ago? I'm all for subsidies to accelerate an emerging market or technology, especially if it's "the future", but for 5-10 years at most, until it becomes mature enough to handle itself. Subsidizing highly profitable companies for a century is beyond stupid, because it…

Oil subsidies are the only reason the US is an energy production leader, not unlike how corn subsidies are the only reason corn-based ethanol is competitive.

Ending subsidies cannot be done -- it needs to be accomplished as a side-effect of ending political interference. The oil lobby and corn lobby are very powerful.

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#15

Post by e13tra »

ck2 wrote: post #6
e13tra wrote: post #5

Looks like the new arms race is about digging your own environmental grave.

I think the country that is going to win will be biggest exporter of clean water in about two decades. Meanwhile China makes more solar panels than anyone in the world yet has the most filthy air.

I don't think this is something that can be won, really, other than in a politics and power influence sense. Not to take analogies to where they oversimplify things, but this is similar to M.A.D.; we share the damage we do, locally, then globally. For us, the shortcut to energy production is in the industry already in place (with its centuries-old history and political power). Until that shifts, we'll keep going the same direction and worry about long term when we have to. Solar energy production is still in its infancy when you compare it to fossil fuels production, in China or anywhere else. I suspect the high output of actual solar panels are more (or just as much) a symptom of market than environmental concerns.

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#16

Post by seiji »

triplesec wrote: post #7

Great. So now the US'll just run out relatively sooner than they would have done compared with those guys. WTG short-term thinking with finite resources. Humans are idiots.

The problem isn't running out of oil. The problem is increased production incentivizing increased usage which drives us over the edge of an irreversible climate catastrofuck.

All the oil is getting extracted out of the ground and (at utilization time) getting pumped into the air. It's the exact opposite of what we need to be doing now.

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#17

Post by throwaway9848 »

seiji wrote: post #16
triplesec wrote: post #7

Great. So now the US'll just run out relatively sooner than they would have done compared with those guys. WTG short-term thinking with finite resources. Humans are idiots.

The problem isn't running out of oil. The problem is increased production incentivizing increased usage which drives us over the edge of an irreversible climate catastrofuck. All the oil is getting extracted out of the ground and (at utilization time) getting pumped into the air. It's the exact opposite of what we need to be doing now.

They are both problems...

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#18

Post by hannibal5 »

e13tra wrote: post #5

Looks like the new arms race is about digging your own environmental grave.

If we want to limit climate change to +2°C, we must leave 80% of hydrocarbons into the ground. This option is not showing in the prices of energy companies. It's just not going to happen.

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#19

Post by joshuahedlund »

Commenters bemoaning US running out of resources sooner or ruining the environment by increasing usage should note that US oil demand has essentially peaked[1] and will likely drop in the coming years due to a variety of factors including demographics and the increasing viability of alternative energy sources (solar power + Tesla et. al.) In this context, the US gas/oil energy boom is a wonderful thing, a last hurrah of cheap energy to supply the economy before the alternatives are finally ready to compete. Furthermore, it's not even bad for the environment in the short term; thanks largely to the natural gas boom replacing the even dirtier coal, US CO2 emissions are at their lowest in 20 years[2] I admit I'm probably a little too optimistic (Edit: fracking may be less than "wonderful"), but even correcting for my bias I strongly suspect it's not nearly as bad as many seem to think.

[1] http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WR... [2] http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012...

Re: U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer

#20

Post by hrjet »

seiji wrote: post #16
triplesec wrote: post #7

Great. So now the US'll just run out relatively sooner than they would have done compared with those guys. WTG short-term thinking with finite resources. Humans are idiots.

The problem isn't running out of oil. The problem is increased production incentivizing increased usage which drives us over the edge of an irreversible climate catastrofuck. All the oil is getting extracted out of the ground and (at utilization time) getting pumped into the air. It's the exact opposite of what we need to be doing now.

Exactly. I would have loved to see an overlay of consumption over production in the article.
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