A Whole Lot of Gas

ThinkProgress Green notes some nifty energy facts that you can contemplate as you pump $4-plus gasoline into your tank:  Under the Obama administration, domestic energy production is at its highest level in eight years; the U.S. has more oil and gas drilling rigs than the rest of the world and our crude production began rising in 2009 after declining to levels not seen since the 1940s; in 2011, the country exported more oil products than it imported for the first time Since 1949; and the five largest oil companies benefited from $200 million more profit for every penny rise in quarterly gas prices. 

Need more fuel? Bloomberg reports that the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline -- seen by more than one presidential contender as the answer to all gas pains that ail us -- “instead risks raising prices as much as 20 cents a gallon in the Midwest, Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.” That’s because it would “create a new way to carry Canadian imports outside the Midwest and reduce an oil surplus that’s depressing prices in the central U.S.”

-- Reed McManus

Image:  Lakeview No. 1 gusher, California. The most spectacular gusher in U.S. history, in 1910-1911 9 million barrels flowed from this one well. (Courtesy:  U.S. Department of Energy)