Three and a half years ago, the International Energy Agency (IEA) triggered headlines around the globe by predicting that the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia to become the world’s leading oil producer by 2020 and, together with Canada, would become a net exporter of oil around 2030. Overnight, a new strain of American energy triumphalism appeared and experts began speaking of “Saudi America,” a reinvigorated USA animated by copious streams of oil and natural gas, much of it obtained through the then-pioneering technique of hydro-fracking. “This is a real energy revolution,”The Wall Street Journal crowed in an editorial heralding the IEA pronouncement.
