U.S. Leads Global Oil and Gas Production for Third Year

For the third year running, the U.S. produced more crude oil and natural gas than any other country in the world in 2014.  More oil than Saudi Arabia.  More gas than Russia.  And it’s happening at time when the U.S. is trying to take a leadership role in slashing greenhouse gas emissions to avert the worst consequences of climate change.

Scientists say the implications of the U.S. role as both the globe’s leading hydrocarbon producer and a leader on cutting emissions to prevent the worst consequences of climate change are tough to reconcile.

“The issues related to oil emissions are complex ones because of the interactions between technology, markets and human behavior,” said Jon Koomey, research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University.  The Steyer-Taylor Center is focused on advancing the use of clean energy technologies while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.  “It’s clear that the administration’s acceptance of the 2°C warming limit is incompatible with their often-stated all-of-the-above energy strategy.”

The White House has long used the term “all of the above” to refer to its policy of developing all forms of energy, including fossil fuels and renewables, in order to maintain a strong economy.
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Continued exploration for oil deep underground, such as fracked shale oil, or in remote areas where it’s difficult and energy-intensive to reach is incompatible with climate stabilization and will quickly erode the globe’s carbon budget — the amount of carbon humans have left to emit before 2°C of warming is inevitable, he said.

“The United States has been stepping up production of oil and gas, but has been reducing coal production,” Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, Calif., said.  “A major source of disagreement is whether the decrease in coal production justifies the increase in oil and gas production.”

“Every CO2 emission imposes damages (on) many people, including living far away many generations into the future,” Caldeira said.  “I think it’s bad to be expanding industries that depend for their existence on dumping CO2 waste into the atmosphere.  The fact that we are doing a little less bad when it comes to coal does not give us license to behave more badly when it comes to oil and natural gas.”

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