In the wake of President Obama’s speech about climate change and new energy alternatives, new reporters show that oil production in Texas has soared in recent years. In March, Texas oil production was at its highest level since 1984 – more than 74 million barrels of crude oil were extracted. Perhaps most impressive, if Texas were a country, it would be one of the 15 largest oil producers in the world.
“I like to see Texas pumping oil. And that's what they do and that's what they are doing right now,” Pat said on radio this morning. “In fact, Texas right now is pumping more oil than many OPEC oil countries. It has soared to the point now where it's reached its highest level in Texas since 1984… We've doubled our output in the last three years, putting it in the ranks of OPEC heavy hitters like Venezuela, Kuwait and Nigeria. That's really something.”
A graph from Fuel Fix shows just how substantial this growth has been:
“I mean it's been a constant fall for the past 30 years and then almost a direct line straight up over the past few,” Stu explained. “And that's because of a couple of big oil discoveries they've had in Texas… A lot of the changes during the Bush administration led to this. So all the stuff that gets bashed and Bush gets wrecked on rightfully so, you give him credit for this. We are now up to providing about 83% of our own energy. We are producing about 83% of our consumption, which is pretty good.”
The 83% figure is especially impressive when you consider that the U.S was producing less than 70% of its own energy as recently as a decade ago.
“And when we talk about energy independence, we're not that far away from it,” Stu said. “And when you factor in Canada and Mexico, we really could get there if we actually gave a crap about it… North American independence.”
“We could absolutely be off of all Middle Eastern oil including Saudi Arabia,” Pat continued. “Wouldn't that be nice if it was just all North America?”
It is important to note that this increased oil production has occurred during a time when we have also seen lower emission rates, which, in theory, makes this a win-win for everyone.
“And, by the way, this whole process has gone on while we're lowering our emissions,” Stu said. “The reason we're lowering our emissions is because of fossil fuels. We're using more natural gas instead of, you know, other things like coal and oil and that's lowering our emissions. So in this energy boom, where we're producing more of our energy and much of it coming from fossil fuels, we're actually lowering our emissions without a cap and trade bill, without any of these other, you know, laws that, you know, the president wants to pass, we're doing all these things that the environmentalists should adore, yet of course they still just call fossil fuels evil.”
“They won't be happy until, until the gas prices are similar to what they are in Europe and until it costs us triple the cost it does now to heat our homes in the wintertime,” Pat concluded. “That's when they'll be happy. And that's, you know, that's when we'll be like any other third world nation in the planet.”
