MAGA and the "Drill, baby, drill" failure

I didn't miss your point which was that "drill baby, drill" was essentially a marketing term / phrase and a boisterous public battle cry uttered by Trump aimed at his base and everybody else during the campaign and afterwards. It was a constant catch phrase employed in his campaign speeches.. some typical Trump bluster verbiage. But there were some actions and occurrences post-election that actually took place to somewhat align with that bluster. 

You can't argue with the facts that (1) early on during Trump's tenure (2025) US oil production reached historically high levels ( as they did under Biden as well in 2024) and that (2) oil and gas drilling permits skyrocketed by 55% according to BLM data. Your current points that crude production and the number of active drilling rigs have recently decreased is true..facts are facts and that's the way it is. I just think it's obvious  that the powers behind oil production and prices are substantially influenced by  current activities in the middle east. The conflicts in that region are an obviously huge anomaly that kinda dwarfs the importance and significance of a  campaign catch phrase. Drill baby, drilll doesn't mean much or have import currently while half the middle east is on fire.

two really good things have happened over the last 30 years

1) We have become energy independant and no longer rely on the Middle East for most of our oil and gas

2) US Conusmers spend much less on oil and gas than we did 30 years ago.  Thats largely due to better gas efficiency in vehicles but also cheaper oil/gas.

The recent conflict shows that despite our energy independance we can stil suffer from shocks to the oil market.  People in Europe and Asia even more so.      China is spending an insane amount of money on renewables to rid themselves of that dependance.   They figured thats a better strategy than to continue to subject themselves to the world oil market which they dont have any direct control over.    Pretty smart on their part.     Too bad we cant be that smart too.      The Confederate Flag waivers call that "Green New Scam" or something.

Yeah, if we hadn't had so much Big Oil-funded opposition to renewable energy, we could just look at whatever's happening in the Middle East at any given time and yawn. And bonus: we wouldn't have to be Israel's bitch.

One thing, though, PJ, we are and always have been "energy independent." We can and always have been able to meet our own energy needs from domestic production alone. That phrase was just Republican propaganda meant to keep us dependent on Big Oil.

I should also reiterate that Canada produces much more energy than it consumes, so if we had a non-hostile trade relationship with them, even that energy independence phantom concern would be moot.