By 2020, according to Yergin, shale gas alone is expected to support 4 million jobs, up from 1.7 million today. That's the year the U.S. (and Texas) will pass up Saudi Arabia as the world's leading oil exporter, according to the International Energy Agency.
None of this is due to the energy and environmental policies of the Obama administration.
Look no further than the announcement by the Fish and Wildlife Service that the dunes sagebrush lizard — a three-inch-long reptile native to the Southwest — "faces immediate and significant threats due to oil and gas activities and herbicide treatments" and that the service has initiated the process to get it listed under the Endangered Species Act.
If the dunes sagebrush lizard had been granted endangered status, oil and gas production in the Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas would be threatened.
As it is, the oil boom continues, providing life support to our beleaguered economy and bringing dismay in foreign capitals from Moscow to Riyadh.