US Will Be World's Top Oil Producer by 2020: Report

Hello, energy independence: The US will become the world's top oil producer by 2020 and require almost no foreign energy by 2035, according to a new International Energy Agency report. The agency bases its daring prediction on the rise in output caused by new technologies like fracking, the LA Times reports. America will produce 11.1 million barrels per day of oil by 2020—surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia—and export more than it imports by 2030, the agency says.

Five years later, US production will fall behind Saudi Arabia's, but by then, America won't need so much foreign energy anyway. As for green energy, it will become the world's second-most popular power source within three years and threaten to surpass fossil fuels by 2035. But that "hinges critically on continued subsidies," says the report. And even by 2035, people will be "failing to put the global energy system onto a more sustainable path." Click for a PDF of the full report. (Or click for more on the rise of gas and oil production in the Americas.)