Shale boom remaking US economy

AFP:

The US shale boom is remaking the nation's industrial landscape and raising the prospect of energy independence in the world's biggest oil consumer.

Booming oil and gas production is creating jobs, reinvigorating energy-consuming industries and remaking the US trade balance.

"The shale revolution is real and is transforming our industry," said Charles Ebinger, director of the energy security initiative at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

The shale boom, which began with a focus on natural gas, has shifted more recently to shale oil.

Shale oil production reached about 2 million barrels a day last year, pushing overall US output to 6.4 million barrels of oil per day, the most in 15 years and 32 percent above the level five years ago.

The boom has transformed the economic picture in parts of Pennsylvania, hit hard by the housing bust, while also catalyzing activity in suddenly jobs-rich North Dakota.

The boom in non-conventional petroleum in 2012 added nearly 500,000 direct jobs, according to a study by research firm IHS. The total impact from the sector was 2.1 million jobs added including workers in oil-related lodging, food, transportation and construction.

IHS estimates that in 2012, the industry generated nearly $75 billion in federal and state tax revenue and contributed $283 billion to the US gross domestic product. These figures are expected to rise by 50 percent by 2020.

The sudden emergence of vast quantities of domestic energy has provided a boon to several energy-dependent sectors, particularly steel, petrochemicals and cement.

"We can become a low-cost producer of many goods that had moved offshore when prices of natural gas were higher," Ebinger said.
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There is also avoiding the cost of imported oil which will pump US jobs and businesses.  The Democrats' policy of artificial scarcity in hopes of pushing alternative energy has been a huge failure that resulted in outsourcing US energy jobs and manufacturing jobs.  The Dems are still pushing that failed ideology where ever they control the levers, that is why this boom is taking place on privately controlled land while production is down on federal controlled sites.