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by Nonproliferat Subcommittee on Terrorism (Author)
The U.S. oil and gas industry is a force multiplier for American influence around the world. For decades, many of the planet's great energy producers were regimes ruled by tyrants who leveraged their oil wealth to oppress their own people and pursue evil foreign policy. However, thanks to American know-how, the United States has unleashed its own energy potential, now becoming a major player in the global market. In large part, America's revival as an energy superpower is a result of the shale revolution. Through the process of hydraulic fracturing-or fracking, as it is called, which was invented in the '40s and expanded recently to be more efficient-we are now able to reach oil and gas deep within the earth, where they were previously unreachable. With this new technology, the U.S. has gone from the world's largest oil importer to one of the world's largest energy exporters. The United States primarily imports heavy crude oil and exports light crude-Texas sweet crude, as we call it. Just a decade ago, the U.S. was importing 12.5 million barrels per day of crude oil and fuel, and now it's just 4 billion. Between 2010 and 2017, oil production rose from 5 million barrels per day to 10 million barrels a day, approaching a record last set in 1970. This has allowed for a dramatic reduction of our dependence on foreign oil, which ultimately strengthens our national security.
