FuelFix/p>
Collin Eaton
HOUSTON – The United States will need to produce as much oil and gas as it can muster to prepare for massive global demand growth over the next four decades, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official said Thursday.
That’s why the U.S. government should stay out of the way of shale gas development and change its policies on federal land, where natural gas production has fallen 33 percent in recent years amid a nationwide boom on private and state lands, said Karen Harbert, CEO of the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy.
She said forecasts show that by 2035, U.S. shale gas and tight oil resources could drive employers to expand payrolls by 4 million jobs, allow companies to collect $2.5 trillion in new revenue and draw $5.1 trillion in new investment in the country.
“The question we have to ask ourselves is what happens if we don’t develop the resources here,” Harbert said during the ninth annual Mayer Brown Global Energy Conference at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Houston. “In 25 years, our economy is still going to be dominated by fossil fuels. We need a policy framework to reflect that.”
The nationwide boom, however, is happening only on private and state lands, a fact that highlights the need for the Department of Interior to revise its policies on federal land. While gas production has fallen on federal lands, it is up 44 percent on state lands. And all of the increased oil production is happening on private and state lands, she said.
Read the full article at FuelFix.