The new buzzword in the energy industry is “geopolitics.” The role of America’s oil and natural gas companies has never been more consequential in shaping the global political order. If history is a good signpost, the change being driven by our nation’s energy industry will have a significant worldwide impact on technologies and policies that will last for decades.

As a free-market economist, count me among those who are buoyed by America’s emergence as the dominant oil and gas producer in the world. This is a welcome development in two ways.