ABSTRACT
The pursuit of energy security involves multiple interactions among global commodity markets, production technologies, public policies and consumers, and it is characterized by ground that is continually shifting. Like the market for American cigarette manufacturers, as public health restrictions grew to major proportions, the domestic market contracted but the export market grew in direct proportion. The United States coal industry is likewise likely to see its growth come from overseas as domestic use is systematically displaced by natural gas, and perhaps wind power. The greatest change to the American energy landscape in recent years, one that seemed to come virtually out of nowhere and surprise almost everyone associated with the energy industry, has been the rapid growth of large-scale shale oil and natural gas production. The shale oil and gas revolution has had an enormous positive economic impact, both on the communities and regions where production occurs and on the nation as a whole.
