Pushing the Energy Boom Forward

America’s shale boom has provided a remarkable boost to the otherwise sluggish U.S. economy. According to Mark P. Mills, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, the oil and gas sector has added $300 billion annually to U.S. GDP, along with 2 million new jobs; without such strong oil and gas performance, Mills writes that the United States would have seen zero, or even negative, growth for the last several years.

With a new group of legislators taking over in 2015, what can be done to keep the boom going? Mills offers four suggestions:

– Approve the Keystone Pipeline. Not only would the project create thousands of new jobs, but Mills writes that importing oil from Canada would displace oil imports from Venezuela.
– Limit the EPA’s power. The agency routinely injects itself into state affairs and has issued a barrage of new regulations. Since 2009, the EPA has issued $40 billion in new regulatory costs each year, more than the rest of the federal agencies combined.
– Allow crude oil exports. Federal law currently limits the ability of oil producers to sell their product overseas. By repealing that ban, the United States could provide its European allies with a dependable supply of oil.
– Increase production. Oil and gas production in the United States has increased, but that growth has taken place on private lands. Production of oil and gas on federal land, where there is a heavy regulatory burden and a number of restrictions, has fallen.

Mills contends that Congress must peel back the rules that limit the ability of the energy sector to grow.

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