Energy News

The American Energy Industry in the Age of Obama

Big Peace has been tracking the challenges faced by American energy companies during the Age of Obama. The Wall Street Journal has a new piece today which highlights how the power of American energy companies is on the decline while those in Russia, China, and countries such as Brazil are on the rise. In 2005, for example, only two non-western companies were among the world’s largest energy companies. Today, half of them are. This is about more than market value. As the piece points out, many of the big American companies don’t own as many energy reserves around the world as they used to. In the 1960s Exxon and Shell owned 85% of the world’s energy reserves. Today, the major western companies control only 15%.
Is it too difficult to understand how this will undermine our strategic position in the world? Is anyone in the White House paying attention to this? Do they even care? Too scary to answer that question.