U.S. to become top oil producer

Skyrocketing production of shale oil and gas will help propel the U.S. ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017, the International Energy Agency said in a new report today. But environmental questions on fracking need to be resolved and continued development needs to be part of a comprehensive energy strategy. A good starting point in the second Obama term would be to revamp the DOE so that it is genuinely focused on real energy needs and not on nuclear resource management and to appoint a new secretary who knows something about oil and gas.