Texas Crude

"Just when we thought Texas might have already seen its better days in oil production - BAM! Along comes the Permian Basin find. How big is it? Geologists think maybe three times bigger than the giant Bakken Field discovery in North Dakota."

No, this is not about any Texas politician with an attitude. It is about oil, and lots of it. Recently, I have penned a couple of articles about running out of patience. I almost could have named this one as the third in the series. I was running out of patience with our energy policy (or lack thereof). Then suddenly, the United States is awash in newly found petroleum reserves. Not just a little awash - quite a bit actually.

Just when we thought Texas might have already seen its better days in oil production - BAM! Along comes the Permian Basin find. How big is it? Geologists think maybe three times bigger than the giant Bakken Field discovery in North Dakota. In other words, it is estimated that this new field alone might contain 20 billion barrels of oil and 1.6 billion barrels of natural gas!

It just seems like yesterday when President Carter would chide the nation about using too much energy. He would have "fireside chats", kind of like the way FDR would. Jimmy would be in front of a fireplace with a roaring fire (sorry carbon footprint!). He would be in a cardigan sweater, and look kind of like Mr. Rogers. He would tell us to keep our thermostats no higher than 65 during the day. Cooler at night. When we drive, we should never go over 55 on any highway. It was a mess. And OPEC had us right where they wanted us. 

But those days are over! This is the new era of energy. OPEC is becoming irrelevant. Russia has oil. Canada has oil. Mexico has oil. And we have a ton of it! And not just oil - natural gas. We have enough natural gas to satisfy our home heating needs, enough to power our electrical plants, and enough left over to export for sale. That should keep the "global warmers" happy, as natural gas is much cleaner than scrubbed coal.

President Elect Trump has vowed to be an energy President much different than Obama. Will Trump still pursue renewable energy sources? Sure, it they make sense financially. But one thing he has vowed to do is to unlock our vast energy sources. The irony is even though Obama has tried to minimize our petrol discoveries during the past eight years, many still happened anyhow. Just imagine how much we will have with a President who takes his foot off the brake.

We have come a long way since those pathetic days under the Carter Administration. Just as Carter made the country ripe for a visionary like Ronald Reagan, Obama has made the country ripe for a President like Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton said on the campaign trail that America does not need to become great again, as we are already great. Maybe so. However, I feel under Donald Trump we will be become even greater.