There’s plenty of hand wringing going on already about what will happen if Donald Trump is elected, but in one of our most productive jobs and wealth producing industries there’s a lot more concern over the future under President Hillary Clinton. Inside the oil and gas community it seems to be widely recognized that Clinton would be bad for production, bad for jobs and bad for the economy. How bad exactly? In the eyes of one industry expert, the difference between Clinton or Trump in the White House would add up to a million barrels of domestically produced oil per day. (Market Watch)

U.S. oil production is bound for a significant shake up after the presidential election in November, says a senior editor at energy-information provider Platts.

“This election is going to have a major impact on the direction of U.S. and, possibly, global oil supply. Maybe the most significant impact of any election in U.S. history,” said Brian Scheid, senior oil editor at Platts, at the Platts Crude Oil Summit in London on Tuesday.

Looking at a worst case/best case scenario worked out between several analysts in Washington, he estimated that with a Republican win, U.S. oil production could jump by as much as 500,000 barrels a day. If the Democrats win, there could be a decline of 500,000 barrels a day, Scheid said.

To put it in perspective, Scheid likens the likely shift in production to the volume of crude the entire state of North Dakota now pumps each day. That’s every day for 365 days per year over four long, dark years. And how do we arrive at these figures? On the GOP side, Trump has made no secret of wanting to maximize American production and exports. He’s gone so far as to threaten barriers to imports from Saudi Arabia. That may not prove practical but it shows the direction he’ll be steering.

For Clinton’s part it mostly comes down to fracking. She’s in a race with Bernie Sanders to see which one of them can shut the practice down faster. And she’s not alone on the world stage, either. Clinton has a friend in France who is not only of a like mind, but is looking at blocking U.S. imports of energy to make a point about the process. John Siciliano at the Washington Examiner has the details.

The French government is looking to ban imports of shale gas from the United States to back a nationwide prohibition on fracking.

“I’m going to examine legally how we can prohibit the import of shale gas, and in any case, these businesses will have to shift towards other markets to import only conventional gas,” France’s energy minister, Segolene Royal, told an assembly of the country’s lawmakers Tuesday.

Royal said she would contact two companies, French utilities EDF and Engie, to explain why they are not accounting for the origins of their natural gas. About 40 percent of the companies’ gas imports were produced from shale in the United States.

Presidents are not all powerful and can, within reason, be kept in check by Congress. But Barack Obama has aptly demonstrated how excessive regulations and EPA policy can shut down avenues of production and bog down potential exports for years. Hillary Clinton is promising more of the same, but at an accelerated pace. The industry is paying close attention, so you can look forward to more unemployment and higher prices at the pump if you put her in office.