US Producing More Oil And Gas In Spite Of Obama's Anti Fossil Fuel Policies

The US Energy Department said that net imports of energy will reduce from 22 percent in 2010 to 13 percent by 2035. Much of the growth in domestic energy is from the intensive drilling in North Dakota and in spite of Obama's policies to deny offshore and federal land drilling permits.

From Bloomberg, "Obama Claiming Credit for Fossil-Fuel Gains Angers Industry" by Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Aaron Clark:

Onshore oil and gas production on federal lands directly under Obama’s control is down 40 percent compared to 10 years ago, according to Spencer Pederson, a spokesman for Representative Doc Hastings, a Washington Republican and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. In 2010, the U.S. signed the fewest number of offshore drilling leases since 1984.***In a January report, the American Petroleum Institute in Washington said that in two years the number of new leases to drill on federal lands declined 44 percent to 1,053 in 2010. The report blamed “new rules, policies and administrative actions that are not conducive to oil and natural gas production.”

Lower imports are the result of lower demand, and increasing production has come despite Obama’s policies, according to Jack Gerard, American Petroleum Institute President. The U.S. needs a “course correction” on energy policy that includes faster permitting on federal lands in the West and in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.***Much of the growth [in domestic energy] has come from North Dakota, where oil producers have spurred a fivefold increase in output by using intensive drilling practices in the Bakken, a geologic formation that stretches from southern Alberta to the northern U.S. Great Plains. [Emphasis Added.]