Two AEI pieces which highlight how overflowing supplies of oil and natural gas undermine the argument for massive subsidies of alternative fuels "that may never deliver competitive bang for the buck."

As the debate over the feasibility of renewable energy continues, I thought you might be interested in AEI’s Energy Fact of the Week in which AEI energy and environment scholar Steve Hayward highlights the North Dakota oil boom:

"North Dakota’s oil production had increased 138 percent in the three-year period from January 2008 to January 2011, to 342,000 barrels a day, making it the fourth-largest oil producing state, ahead of historic oil giants Oklahoma and Louisiana. . . . At this rate, North Dakota will pass California and Alaska to become the second-largest oil producing state within a year."

In Future Energy: natural gas fracking--who blew up the 'bridge to the future? AEI visiting fellow Jon Entine writes about the controversy surrounding shale gas and the anti-fracking groups who prevent this abundant fuel to be an energy game-changer -- even though the "International Energy Agency estimates there is quarter of a millennium's worth of cheap shale gas in the world based on current energy consumption."

Steve Hayward is the author of the Almanac of Environmental Trends and a contributor to AEI's Energy and Environment Outlook series. He can be reached at shayward@aei.org or through his assistant hiwa.alaghebandian@aei.org. Jon Entine researches and writes about science and corporate responsibility. He can be reached at jentine@aei.org.

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