As the year comes to a close, gas prices in the U.S are at their lowest point of 2023. And not coincidentally, domestic oil production is at a record level. But it comes at a time when the U.S. is trying to wean itself off fossil fuels. William Brangham examined the big changes and the implications with Clifford Krauss, the national energy correspondent for The New York Times. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: As the year comes to a close, gas prices in the U.S. are at their lowest point of 2023. And, not coincidentally, domestic oil production is at a record high. William Brangham looks at what’s behind the big changes and the implications. William Brangham: Geoff, the average price of gas is $3.12 a gallon. That is far below the nearly $4.00-a-gallon highs we saw this fall. At the same time, the U.S. is producing an unprecedented amount of oil, some 13.5 million barrels a day. Moreover, big energy companies are merging as they try to get more production out of the Permian Basin in Texas and in New Mexico. Exxon plans to buy shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources for nearly $60 billion, and Chevron plans to buy Hess for $53 billion. This record production of oil and these big mergers come at the very same time when the U.S. government is trying to wean the nation off of fossil fuels, because using them is dangerously warming the planet. Clifford Krauss is the national energy correspondent for The New York Times, and he joins me now. Cliff, great to have you back on the program. Explain to us, how did we get here from this plummeting oil market during the […]
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