America utterly dominated global natural gas production in 2021

The United States is the world’s largest producer of natural gas, and it isn’t even close. In fact, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows the U.S. almost produced more natural gas than the second-and third-largest producers combined.

The graph below illustrates how American natural gas production began to surge in 2007 as hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Texas and Pennsylvania began to take off. By 2010, the United States had eclipsed Russia as the world’s largest natural gas producer. In 2021, the U.S. almost produced more natural gas than Russia and Iran combined.

Surging production has been a massive economic benefit to America’s economy, creating thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industry and, more importantly, causing energy prices to plummet.

Prior to the widespread adoption of fracking, natural gas prices were volatile and much higher than they are today. Fracking brought prices down, reducing the price of home heating and generating electricity using natural gas.

As I wrote about previously, high energy prices are deadly, and low energy prices are a boon to the economy because families have more money left in their budgets for healthy food, clothes for their kids, or maybe even a family vacation. Surging energy prices have been a key reason why inflation has remained stubbornly high in the United States for the last two years.

Unfortunately, liberal energy policies seek to reduce our natural gas production, which will necessarily cause prices to increase. The United States should instead show energy leadership by producing as much reliable, affordable energy as possible.