In case you’re growing tired of waking up every morning and checking social media or reading the Washington Post and hearing about how awful everything is these days, how about some good news? The U.S. Energy Information Administration has finished compiling all of the production numbers for last year and determined that America was the global leader in production of both petroleum and natural gas. And in terms of who else was in the hunt, it wasn’t even close.

The United States remained the world’s top producer of petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbons in 2017, reaching a record high. The United States has been the world’s top producer of natural gas since 2009, when U.S. natural gas production surpassed that of Russia, and the world’s top producer of petroleum hydrocarbons since 2013, when U.S. production exceeded Saudi Arabia’s. Since 2008, U.S. petroleum and natural gas production has increased by nearly 60%.

For the United States and Russia, total petroleum and natural gas hydrocarbon production, measured in energy content, is almost evenly split between petroleum and natural gas, while Saudi Arabia’s production heavily favors petroleum. Total petroleum production is made up of several different types of liquid fuels, including crude oil and lease condensate, tight oil, extra-heavy oil, and bitumen.

Here’s the chart showing the overall leaders. The numbers speak for themselves.

On top of that, the American rig count (provided by Baker Hughes) is back up to some of the highest levels ever seen. The count currently stands at 1,046, which is 145 more than at the same time last year. By comparison, Canada is currently operating 83 rigs. The rest of the countries in the world have a grand total of 978. These are dominating numbers which speak to true energy independence. Nobody is going to be threatening to crush us with an oil embargo anytime soon.

So this is one thing we call get behind and find a bipartisan reason to celebrate, right? Well… not everyone. No sooner had these number come out than Democrats moved to block new drilling in Alaska. (The Hill)

A group of House Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would block oil and natural gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

The bill from Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and others would reverse Congress’s decision last year to approve drilling in a portion of ANWR, which was included as part of the Republican tax overhaul.

The sponsors of the anti-drilling legislation warned that with the Trump administration hoping to hold an auction for drilling rights next year, lawmakers have to work fast to overturn the provision.

Seriously? Just as we finally have the upper hand on Russia, OPEC and everyone else, taking control of our own destiny and providing untold jobs and investment opportunities, you want to throw cold water all over the news. This, as some of your mothers no doubt told you growing up, is why we can’t have nice things.