Graphic shows U.S. oil production has increased dramatically under Obama

This week, I'm showing my students "The End of Suburbia" again.  That means it's time for another update answering some of the questions.

The most recent comment to Guide to entries that contain answers to 'The End of Suburbia' ended with the following promise.

The next updates will probably be more explicit answers to 21 and 22, which I quoted above, and a commentary on how fracking, tar sands, and deep sea drilling have affected the fossil fuel picture since the movie came out 11 years ago. My students this semester were having trouble with the former and have been asking about the latter. I'll see if I can get those done before I show the movie again in November.

Even though the effect of oil on U.S. foreign policy is timely, both because of terrorism in Paris and elsewhere and the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, I'm going to save that topic for later.  Instead, I'm sharing this graphic from FiveThirtyEight, which Ben Casselman introduced in the context of the most recent Republican debate.

One more note on energy: Republicans love to criticize Obama on energy. And he has made some decisions that are unpopular with the oil and gas industry, most recently his decision last week to block the Keystone XL pipeline. But it's hard to argue that the industry has suffered too much under Obama. Just look at what's happened to oil production on his watch:

U.S. oil production has now increased to form a secondary peak higher than the 1987 peaking of Alaskan production.  It's second only to the 1970-1971 peak of overall U.S. production.

That reminds me of this question: "11. Who originally described Peak Oil? When? What was his prediction for Peak Oil in the U.S.?"  The answers are M. King Hubbert and the early 1970s, specifically 1970.  See, I did answer one of the questions after all.