Report: U.S. Could Become World's Largest Oil Producer by 2017

On Monday, The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report that found the United States could overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer by 2017.

In its annual forecast, the IEA concluded since “the U.S. is drilling more crude oil through increased use of hydraulic fracturing of underground shale formations,” U.S. oil production could “eventually make the world’s largest economy nearly energy self-sufficient,” which has been a “goal long sought by U.S. leaders but one they have never come close to achieving.”

According to the IEA, the U.S. has to import oil to meet 20 percent of its energy needs but could become a net oil exporter by 2030 and “self-sufficient five years later.”

During hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” shale oil and natural gas “are extracted after water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure to crack open rocks.”

But fracking, as the report notes, is banned in places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and “is under moratorium in the nearby states of New York and Maryland, pending further health- and environmental-risk assessment.”

Fracking will not only make the U.S. energy independent but will create good-paying jobs in areas in need of economic development. Yet, liberals and environmentalists — with the help of their allies in Hollywood — continue to oppose and demonize fracking.