For months, headlines have proclaimed a surge in U.S. energy production: Crude oil production in March 2012 was nearly 20 percent higher than it was on average in 2008, increasing from 4.95 million to 5.93 million barrels per day, and it is predicted to keep going up to levels not seen since the 1990s. And shale gas production has risen over the past decade from 2 percent of U.S. natural gas supply to 37 percent. While the United States still imports more than 40 percent of its oil overall, it became a net exporter of petroleum products in 2011 for the first time since 1949, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that the country will become a net exporter of natural gas by 2021. So how will this U.S. uptick affect the geopolitics of energy? We asked some of the world's top experts about the consequences of growing demand in China and growing tension in Iran, the Obama administration's energy record, and -- yes -- oil prices. If they agreed on one thing, it's that we're in the midst of a shake-up of major proportions.
