Hurtling Towards Climate Chaos: US Oil Production Set to Explode

Projections released Tuesday that US oil production is set to surge to record levels shows the US continuing down the path of runaway climate change.

Reuters reports:

[...] the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday that the country's crude oil production will rise by the largest amount on record in 2013, and is set to soar by a quarter over two years.

Seth Kleinman, global head of energy strategy at Citigroup, told the BBC that the rise was due "entirely because of the application of fracking."

The EIA's figures came the same day as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 2012 was by far the hottest year on record for the US.

Dr. Shaye Wolf, climate science director with the Center for Biological Diversity, warned that "the blazing temperatures that scorched America in 2012 are a bitter taste of the climate chaos ahead."

While Wolf says the NOAA data "puts the heat on President Obama to take immediate action against carbon pollution," the projections for surging oil production show the US has no plans for escaping what climate expert James Hansen has described as a "planetary emergency."

Daphne Wysham, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, stated Wednesday that Obama's 'all of the above' energy strategy

[...] dooms the U.S. and the world to higher temperatures, more nuclear accidents and higher energy prices. Meanwhile, poor countries like Uruguay are on track to 90 percent renewable energy by 2015 and rich countries like Germany and Denmark are on track to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 if not sooner. The U.S., with vastly more sun and wind resources, can and should do more to pull us from the brink of climate catastrophe.