People talk about energy independence; it’s a catchy political slogan. Sometimes it can get a bit xenophobic, making it about a fear of the far distant and foreign nationals. Typically the places we’re mentioned trying to gain energy independence from are in the Middle East, the theory is that if we’re not beholden to “foreign oil” we’ll not have to be concerned about Middle Eastern politics, nor will we owe these countries anything. However, most of the foreign oil the US gets is from Canada and Mexico. However, there are advantages to getting Texas oil and gas, instead of needing to import it. Some of the advantages are ecological, some are environmental. The fact that high oil prices are economizing more drilling in the US offers interesting opportunities for people to invest into Texas oil and glass and see higher returns.
One of the most famous ecological disasters was caused by the Exxon Valdez crashing and creating a massive oil spill near Alaska. The second most famous one was by British Petroleum drilling into the Gulf of Mexico and making a catastrophic mess of things. While this might seem like an argument against Texas oil and gas, if you think about it, what it’s warning against is relying on hard to reach or distant sources of oil and gas. If we can extract it from underground sources in places we can reach through safe and conventional means it means that oil and gas can be pulled out of the ground at a lower risk to the local environment. Most people who invest into oil and gas are not members of the green party, but they are interested in the personal financial benefits of investing into oil and gas in Texas.
When the transportation costs are lower and the time to sale shorter the economic benefit is higher. As the cost of gasoline and other products of oil and gas, raises it makes it more economical to pay the prices you have to in America to drill. Remember, the average hourly wage in the US is higher, as are the liability risks and the environmental hurdles. All that aside, it is becoming more economical to get the oil and gas from states like Texas where there is some to be found. Will the US ever be able to run on just Texas oil and gas? It’s unlikely, but the more the US can move to geographically reachable oil and not have to worry about moving or extracting it from the far corners of the world the lower the ecological impact of the oil.
