WASHINGTON, D.C. (Michigan News Source) – While protesters gathered in Michigan recently in efforts to close a coal plant, fossil fuels are being produced in the U.S. at record levels.

The United States set an all-time record for domestic oil production when it produced 13.48 million barrels of oil per day on average in May. That broke the previous record set a month earlier of 13.46 million barrels of oil per day.

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That’s according to the most recent data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. To put that in perspective, the average in May of 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns was 9.71 million barrels of oil per day. In January of 2010, the U.S. was producing 5.40 million barrels of oil per day on average. Michigan produces about 11,000 barrels of oil per day.

Energy experts say the increase in production is due to better technology used while doing hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling techniques. The increase has also been prompted by oil reserves in the Permian Basin, located in western Texas and eastern New Mexico, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

About 100 protesters met in Holland earlier this month and called for the J.H. Campbell coal power plant to be immediately closed.