The United States Energy Information Administration (USEIA) reported in March 2024 that in 2023 the United States produced more crude oil than any other country on earth—and more than it had ever produced before. In fact, the United States produced more crude oil than any other country for the last six years—from 2018 through 2023. In 2023 the gap between the United States and Russia (the second highest producing country) and Saudi Arabia (the third highest producing country) was substantially larger than in previous years

1. The Biden administration has been pressured by every imaginable side to take the previous administration’s “drill baby drill” policies and not only allow them to continue but to build upon them. For example, the United States was motivated to displace Russian oil used in the European Union (EU). Where Russia had provided more oil to the EU than any other country as recently as early 2022, their contribution was down to only 4% by the end of that year. At the same time the EU’s biggest suppliers became the United States, Norway, and Kazakhstan.

2. Post COVID economic pressures—both supply and demand as well as inflation— motivated the approval of drilling permits loosely related to keeping gasoline prices down.
Similarly, the need to respond to Americans who want to know “what the government is doing to help them” has translated into the perceived need to produce more crude oil domestically to keep the cost of not only gasoline but other raw materials that come from a barrel of crude oil (think plastics) down and the supply predictable. Telling the skeptical citizenry that although we do need to be green in the future, today we want to help you fill your gas tank in the least painful way possible is not surprising— but it is not wise. A segment of the population is ready to “go green” or they already have started down that path. Others have a positive view of conscientious living—the idea is appealing but their actions are not particularly supportive of moving away from fossil fuels. Too many are in a state of denial. They mock the idea of transitioning to electric cars, using renewable energy, fighting climate change. They sometimes declare that it’s their God given right to burn as much gasoline as they want; that bigger is always better and that those wanting to curb the use of fossil fuels are foolish nerds.

The problem is that succumbing to the vast pressures to maintain business as usual will not get us where we need to be in the coming months and years. Yes, the ravages of climate change are here—and will worsen significantly in the coming months and years—not decades as so many think, trying to pacify themselves. What’s for dinner? What are we doing this weekend? Why didn’t I get a raise this year? I cannot pay the increase in rent here; I need to move. Will my child get into a good college? My car needs work that I can’t afford… for many people everything else is just more important—more immediate. Life grabs our attention and the pressing need to take significant action to move away from fossil fuel use drops to the bottom of the list of things that many of us think about.

The world is producing oil like there is no tomorrow. So, what will tomorrow bring? What will we have to endure when tomorrow comes anyway and we’ve extracted massive amounts more of fossil fuels and we are busily burning them for this and that? Will it be another trio of hurricanes (like Debby in August 2024, Helene late September 2024 and Milton early October 2024) that unleash destruction at a level unseen before? How many clusters of major disasters can we absorb before systems begin to fail? Systems like the insurance industry, like schools tasked with educating tomorrow’s workers and responsible citizens, like the food supply. Our need to shift away from fossil fuel use needs to move up closer to the top of the list of what we think about, and act on, every day.

1 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=61545
2 https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/28/energy/eu-us-oil-imports-overtake-russia/index.html