EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Oil Is Near $100. Shale Isn’t Coming to the Rescue.

The U.S. remains an oil and gas superpower. Rystad Energy forecasts that American crude production is on track to hit a record 13 million barrels a day in September. But the industry’s recovery from the pandemic was relatively slow—it last recorded 13 million barrels a day in November 2019—and it appears that it is no longer willing to grow rapidly to meet rising demand.

Some of the recent growth came from private operators, who added rigs in response to higher oil prices last year and helped push up the national output.

But smaller companies have run out of sweet spots, forcing them to slow down. Higher costs of equipment, labor and steel in the oil patch has also reined in their activity, executives and analysts said, as has an outflow of investment from the sector.

Where did the investment dollars go?

Here: Biden’s Climate Law Is Reshaping Private Investment in the United States. “Private investment in clean energy projects like solar panels, hydrogen power and electric vehicles surged after President Biden signed an expansive climate bill into law last year, a development that shows how tax incentives and federal subsidies have helped reshape some consumer and corporate spending in the United States.”

Just not in ways that make economic sense.