The biggest problem I see for the US is the regulatory climate clamping down on everything to limit supply, and now reading at what @Smokin Joe says they've done near permanent damage to the sector both psychologically and physically.
I'm not sure psychology is such a factor for those of us in the upstream end of the industry, at least those of us who have been around a while. It takes a different mentality to survive long term, when your income can go from six figures to zero overnight, and back again with a phone call. Most job applications I filled out were done after I was hired, not before.
We know nothing is permanent in terms of income or position, so we don't often buy things on payments, and when we do, we make sure we can make them if the patch goes flat. That means a bit more modest living, or going from boom to bust to boom again, just like the industry. I opted for the former and do not regret it.
What does get frustrating in that we spent decades listening to people decry "Big Oil" for everything, and drive to the airport to fly wherever...(If I ever have an oil company, that's what I'm going to name it. I'll hire squadrons of lawyers to sue the Media every time they blame "Big Oil" for the woes of everything from the economy to the weather.) Only when we (once again) brought America to the point where we could supply ourselves if need be did we get any credit, but our supply is only part of what the world consumes, and it is the global market which sets the trends.
Here, in North Dakota, I think we're pretty much over the animosity, as farmers who bought the latest round of equipment to farm spreads of 5 to 15 square miles (about a million dollars worth of equipment to plant those crops) realize we aren't out to make a mess of things or steal any land, pay good royalties if they are the mineral owners, production and drill site rent if they only own the surface and not the minerals, and we are all working to make this a prosperous place. Oil extraction tax money has provided property tax relief, so much that I only had to pay the special assessments on my home, not property taxes this year. Oil is a big part of why the State is running in the black.
The regulatory climate we have to worry about is Federal. The States rules are laid out for everyone to see, and complied with, with few exceptions, because they are actually common sense rules designed to prevent damage to the number one all time economic driver--the land itself, the means of agricultural production. Silly bullshit need not apply. Yes, we have windmills, and coal mines, too, so there is a balance of power, so to speak, with coal, wind, natural gas, and hydropower all contributing to make twice as much electricity as the State needs, the surplus is sold off.
I just wish we had more refining capability, and then we'd be completely self sufficient.
But it's the Federal rules that get thrown in at the drop of a hat, and some of them make no sense at all, mainly because they are based on the panic of coastal (and other) urbanites who have no clue what life is like in flyover country.
Unfortunately, that scale has tipped nationally, and that means the people who make or allow the rules are often clueless.
I take a Jeffersonian view, but 80% of the American population lives in the urban areas, and only 20% of us occupy 90+% of the land.
