USA TODAY: The economic benefits of far-reaching new finds of domestic oil and natural gas are fast approaching $1 billion a day and may be keeping the U.S. out of another recession, according to a new study by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The biggest part of the benefit is lower utility costs because natural gas is so much cheaper in the U.S. than the world average. That has saved U.S. companies and consumers an average of $566 million a day for the last year, chief of commodities research Francisco Blanch said.
The U.S., long an energy importer, is now exporting $67.9 million per day of finished petroleum products such as diesel fuel and $32.3 million worth of coal, which is being replaced by natural gas in many domestic electric plants. While oil imports remain near 9 million barrels a day, new domestic sources and a shift to cheaper imports from Canada rather than the Middle East and West Africa are saving another $56.2 million per day, Merrill says… (more)
