Roughneck Brian Waldner is covered in mud and oil while wrestling pipe on a True Company oil drilling rig outside Watford, N.D., Oct. 20, 2012.
A forecast projected by the International Energy Agency in November predicted that the U.S. would become the world’s biggest oil producer by 2020, eclipsing Saudi Arabia. That news capped a year that’s seen a surge in American oil and natural gas production, with production now 1.6 million barrels a day higher than it was four years ago. The booming energy industry at home has amplified American political chatter about imminent “energy independence”. Prices, of course, would still be shaped by a global market driven by the growing demands of countries like India and China. But the expansion of supply in the U.S. may diminish the incentive for policy-makers to address the threat of climate change with alternatives to carbon-based energy sources.