WASHINGTON - Only time will tell whether OPEC will effectively implement its recent decision to curb oil supplies and reverse a price slump that’s persisted for 2½ years.
But amid the many prognostications over oil prices, something else is clear: When it comes to energy security, the U.S. is in a much better position today than it has been in years.
Carlos Pascual, a top energy official at the State Department early in the Obama administration and once an ambassador to Ukraine and Mexico, offered a reminder the other day that the resurgence in U.S. oil and natural gas production in recent years has given Washington more discretion in dealing with Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC, not to mention Russia and other countries.

When it comes to oil, “the capacity to have a dialogue and to have a discussion as equals, and not as an importer speaking to an exporter, changes the nature of the relationship and the dynamics around the issues that you can address,” Pascual, a senior vice president with the analysis firm IHS, said on the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast last week. (USA Today)