But . . . but . . . but, we need “green” energy.
(Washington Examiner) — America’s energy-rich western states stretching from North Dakota and Montana on the Canadian border to New Mexico on the Southern border can produce enough oil and natural gas to replace what America presently imports from Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Columbia, Algeria, Iraq, Russia, Venzuela, and Kuwait, according to a new study conducted for the Western Energy Alliance.
The study was conducted for the alliance by EIS, with data analysis provided by ICF.
According to the study’s executive summary, the western states can produce as much as 1.3 million barrels of oil per day by 2020, and 6.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually by the same year.
Other finds of the study include:
- Investment in western energy development could increase to $58 billion annually by 2020. This prospective growth is more than double the investment made in 2010.
- The number of direct, indirect and induced jobs in the oil and natural gas sector is projected to increase by 16% to 504,120 by 2020.
- Annual state severance tax collections in the West are projected to increase from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $5.6 billion by 2020, generating a significant revenue windfall for schools, infrastructure and other basic services.
The complete study can be read here.