US drilling its way out of dependence, making turmoil less costly

Washington Times:

America’s growing energy independence is paying major dividends this spring, helping to keep a lid on fuel prices despite sudden threats to major global oil supplies in Iraq and Russia that in the past would have sent prices soaring.

Sunni Muslim extremists who have taken over large portions of northern Iraq have shown their willingness to use oil supplies as a weapon, taking control over the nation’s biggest refinery in Baiji temporarily Wednesday after having sabotaged a major pipeline funneling oil through Turkey for export.

Their advance on Baghdad and regions farther south threatens to cripple Iraq’s ability to expand output at its most prolific and important southern oil fields as well, potentially dealing a blow to China and other oil-thirsty Asian nations that were looking to Iraq for supplies in the future.

The Iraq crisis follows Russia’s takeover of Crimea and its backing of rebels fighting the Kiev government in eastern Ukraine, prompting the U.S. and Europe to threaten broad sanctions on Russia’s economy, including its vital oil sector. Such sanctions have the potential to throttle oil exports from the world’s top producer and deprive much of Europe of a critical source of oil.

In the past, either of these two major threats to oil supplies — and certainly both of them together — would have sent world oil prices soaring and pushed prices at U.S. gas pumps to uncomfortable and possibly unprecedented levels. But that is not happening, and analysts are attributing the relative calm, with premium crude prices having risen moderately to a range around $106 a barrel in New York so far this week, to the gusher of oil coming out of America’s heartland, which is holding down prices.
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This is just more evidence of how wrong Democrats and environmentalist were when they opposed drilling.  There is no way that alternative energy could produce enough to lesson these shocks, but successful drilling did.  If they would get out of they way of drilling on federal sites we could do away with imports for all practical purposes.