Energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2012 were the
lowest in the United States since 1994, at 5.3 billion metric
tons of CO2. With the exception of 2010, emissions have declined
every year since 2007. The gap in natural gas prices has opened
quickly, leaving companies that make investment decisions years
in advance scrambling to catch up. As recently as 2007, U.S.
natural gas prices were only about 20 percent lower than
Europe's, not enough to fundamentally reshape markets. Two key
US senators Wednesday plan to unveil a new bill that would
expand revenue sharing for oil and natural gas production in
federal waters, accelerate payments for coastal states and
extend payments to renewable energy development. Expressing
surprise at the enormous increase in U.S. production of oil and
natural gas by unconventional means, Thomas Helbling, a division
chief in the IMF's (International Monetary Fund) Research
Department, was forced to admit that it was free enterprise that
was responsible for it after all.