American oil production — already higher than any other country — is quietly setting new records and helping to push down gas prices.

• Why it matters: Oil wells are booming again this year after the pandemic crushed demand and reduced production by more than 20%, Axios' Ben Geman reports.

What's happening: U.S. oil production is over 13.2 million barrels per day, topping records set in 2019.

• The average gas price in the U.S. — $3.15 per gallon — has plunged since hitting records in the summer of 2022.

How it happened: Forces pushing U.S. output up include ...

1. High oil prices in recent years provided an incentive to drill more.
2. Producers at prolific U.S. shale basins are improving efficiency and drilling horizontal wells up to three miles long.
3. Saudi Arabia and allied producers have held back some production as OPEC looks to prop up prices, leaving a market opening.
4. Investment and permitting decisions that date back several years — "even as far back as the Bush and Obama administrations for offshore development," the American Petroleum Institute's Megan Bloomgren said.

🔎 Between the lines: The record drilling — and how to talk about it — has squeezed President Biden between young climate activists and persistent GOP attacks on his energy record.

• Biden has remained relatively silent about U.S. oil strength. But he does like promoting lower gas prices, which this supply increase helps enable.

Some moderate Democrats want Biden to openly take credit for record production.

• Josh Freed, who runs the climate and energy program at the center-left think tank Third Way, told Axios: "Gas prices have been high — and the Biden administration has done a huge amount to lower them, including upping drilling in the U.S."

The intrigue: Biden's GOP and industry critics say the records come despite White House policies they call a drag on U.S. companies.

• Biden's critics want less regulation and stronger support for drilling on federal lands.
• Much of the oil and gas boom has unfolded on private or state lands, including the Texas side of the prolific Permian Basin.

🛢️ What's next: Production is expected to grow next year, but at a slower pace, according to estimates from the federal Energy Information Administration that are frequently revised.

• The agency's latest outlook sees U.S. crude output averaging roughly 13.2 million barrels per day next year, roughly the same as current levels and up around 2% from this year's average.

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Nearly half of registered voters (48%) said the U.S. is spending "too much" on aid for Ukraine, according to a new poll by the Financial Times and University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

• 65% of Republicans said the U.S. is spending too much on Ukraine, compared with 52% of independents and just 32% of Democrats.

The stark sign of waning support comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travels to Washington this week to argue for more aid.

• Tomorrow, Zelensky will speak to an all-senators meeting at the Capitol, meet with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and visit President Biden at the White House.

🔭 What's next: Lawmakers remain at an impasse over an emergency national security spending package that includes roughly $60 billion for Ukraine, Axios' Andrew Solender writes.

• Congress has just one week left in session before senators are scheduled to leave town for the holidays. Some senators have said they are willing to remain in D.C. as long as it takes to work out a deal.

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With 35 days until the Iowa caucuses, former President Trump has expanded his lead to 51% first-choice support among likely caucusgoers, according to an NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll out this morning.

• Why it matters: Trump's lead is the largest recorded so close to a competitive Republican caucus in Iowa Poll history, NBC's Mark Murray and Alex Tabet write.

Between the lines: Trump's lead is fueled by majorities of evangelical and first-time likely caucusgoers.

🥊 Reality check: J. Ann Selzer, the Iowa pollster who has conducted the Iowa Poll for the past three decades, reminded NBC how unpredictable the Iowa caucuses can be — including former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's narrow upset win in 2012.

• Go deeper (Des Moines Register).

Nearly all of the job growth in the economy in November came from just three sectors: healthcare, government employment, and leisure and hospitality, Axios' Emily Peck writes.

• It's been happening all year. These three sectors, plus private education employment, are responsible for 81% of all the jobs created in 2023, James Knightley, ING's chief international economist, wrote in a note.

Why it matters: The data may help explain why so many Americans are pessimistic about the economy despite what looks like a strong labor market — they might not work in one of the growing sectors.

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As Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip have ramped up and the death toll rises, a growing proportion of the demonstrations in U.S. cities have been in support of Palestinians, according to a tracker from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).

• Opinion polling shows younger Americans, in particular, have grown more sympathetic to Palestinians since the conflict started, Axios' Rahul Mukherjee and Shoshana Gordon report.

The trend: Initially after the Oct. 7 attack, most demonstrations in the U.S. were in solidarity with Israel. Within a week, with the Israeli military response underway, pro-Palestinian protests began to outnumber pro-Israeli protests, according to the data.

• Nearly half of all pro-Israel protests worldwide included in ACLED's tracker have taken place in the U.S., far more than in any other country.

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More than two years after President Biden signed legislation allocating $5 billion for a nationwide network of taxpayer-funded electric vehicle chargers, the first one finally opened last Friday in Ohio.

• Why it matters: Having convenient, reliable fast chargers along major highways is a key confidence-booster for people considering an electric car, Axios' Joann Muller writes.

But the government's effort to supply them is moving at typical government speed, while the privately funded buildout of charging stations continues separately.

• That slow pace is making it harder to achieve Biden's ultimate goal of EVs making up half of all new cars sold by 2030.

🧮 By the numbers: The U.S. will need 28 million home and public charging ports to support a potential 33 million plug-in electric vehicles by 2030, per the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

• With 60,000 public chargers — including only 8,560 fast chargers — available today, the country still has a long way to go.

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John Forbes Kerry — former Secretary of State and Senate Foreign Relations chairman, Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, and now the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate — turns 8-0 today.

• Kerry is celebrating today by continuing his high-profile role at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, where he's one of the most visible, famous and powerful officials from around the globe.

Kerry has been a tireless globetrotter as special envoy. At COP28, he has huddled frequently with his Chinese counterpart to try to steer other countries toward agreement, Axios' Andrew Freedman reports from Dubai.

Shohei Ohtani, unique in baseball as both an elite pitcher and hitter, is being called the world's highest-paid athlete.

• The 29-year-old's jaw-dropping $700 million, 10-year deal with the L.A. Dodgers, announced Saturday, is more than expected — even though the most coveted free agent ever was sure to sign the biggest deal in baseball history.
• The Dodgers hope they can leverage the Japanese star's arrival into even more money for a franchise that's already one of the most popular in Major League Baseball, AP reports.

Why he matters: Ohtani is the sport's best two-way player ever — not even Babe Ruth hit and pitched at the same time so effectively.

• Though Ohtani won't be able to pitch in 2024 following Tommy John surgery, he should provide plenty of value at the plate before he returns to the mound in 2025.

🏟️ The big picture: This appears to be the biggest contract in sports history, topping highs believed set by soccer stars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.

• It's assuredly the biggest deal in the history of U.S. major leagues. The previous MLB high was the $426.5 million, 12-year deal by Mike Trout, Ohtani's former teammate on the L.A. Angels, in 2019.

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