“…When gas prices topped $4 per gallon in May 2011, President Barack Obama said, “We can’t just drill our way out of the problem.”
Throughout his presidency, Obama stated some version of that sentiment every time he wanted to push to subsidize alternative energy sources.
More than seven years later, human ingenuity, technological innovation, and the power of the free market have proven him wrong. To the benefit of American families across the country, the United States is now the largest global producer of crude oil.
According to a report from the federal government’s Energy Information Administration this week, U.S. crude oil production surpassed that of Saudi Arabia and Russia. When Obama made his statement in May 2011, U.S. monthly production was 174 million barrels (5.67 million barrels per day). In June 2018, monthly production stood at 320.23 million barrels (10.67 million barrels per day).
The dramatic increase in supply shows drilling is not just a “bumper sticker” slogan, as Obama called it in his weekly address in February 2012, but a path to energy independence, prosperity, and jobs…”