White House Takes Victory Lap On Oil Boom

In a new blog post , White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jason Furman and National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling celebrate Thursday's upward GDP revision coming in large part thanks to the petroleum imports falling to a record low in June.

They write:

This is yet another reminder that the President's focus on increasing America's energy independence is not just a critical national security strategy, it is also part of an economic plan to create jobs, expand growth and cut the trade deficit.

And they go on to explain why the government was instrumental to fueling the boom:

Government funded research supplemented private industry's work to develop the technology that sparked the boom in oil and gas production. Crude oil production has grown each year the President has been in office to its highest level in 17 years in 2012 (see chart above). In fact, over the past four years, domestic oil supply growth has accounted for over one-third of global oil production growth.

One thing we know is that "energy independence" is mostly a political fluff term that most analysts say will not and/or should not ever happen.

And while it's true that government research helped lead to advances in hydraulic fracturing, the real contribution the administration has made to the boom is allowing the drilling to continue largely unchecked, leaving most regulation to states.

But the raw economic gains they cite are definitely real. Here's their chart, showing where we stand against the President's goal:

They also cite the 35,000 direct and countless knock-on jobs the boom has created, and the fact that the unemployment rate in North Dakota - ground zero for the shale oil boom - is effectively non-existent.

True enough.

(via E&E/Greenwire's Elana Shor b/w UpstreamOnline's Noah Brenner.)