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| Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
When Obama came into office the gas prices at
the pump were at a national average of $1.79 per gallon, now it’s at a national
average of $3.90 per gallon. The price of oil per barrel then was $60 now its
$107.00 per barrel. You may also recall that during his acceptance speech he
said that in 10 years we would be off our dependence on foreign oil from the
Middle East. After four and a half years in office, it is clear that he has no
plans to lead us in that direction. This was obviously empty rhetoric with no
substance as was much of his campaign rhetoric. It is unfortunate that so many
gullible people believed this nonsense or voted for him based on his color or
personality. This should never be the basis for voting any politician into
office.
The Right Policy to Drive Down Gas Prices
The oil policy that will immediately drive
down the price of a barrel of oil $45 to $50 per barrel and consequently the
prices at the pump would a policy that support drilling and the recovery of oil
shale in all areas of the United States where there are known reserves.
Furthermore, the policy should state that while we will take in account
reasonable environmental concerns, we will not be limited by irrational and
ridiculous environmental concerns such as putting the “rights of animals”, the possibly of eliminating some species of animal or fish above the needs of
human beings, or the silly notion of "climate change" And, finally the policy should state that we will not be
concerned about water pollution while we have thousands of oil tankers bringing
crude oil from other countries to our shores every day.
The Need to Drill Our Own Oil
It is estimated that we have 19 billion
barrels of easily recoverable oil off the currently restricted Pacific and
Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico. Another 19 billion barrels of
oil in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaskan coast is also restricted due to onerous
regulations, such as acquiring air quality permits. In addition, another 10
billion barrels of oil also subjected to senseless restriction is the oil that
lies beneath a few thousand acres in the Arctic National Wildlife refuge. These
10 billion barrels are equivalent to 16 years worth of imports from Saudi
Arabia at the current rate. Or, another way of looking at it is that this is
enough oil to fuel all the vehicles for 7.4 million households for 50 years.
The Need to Recover Our Own Oil
Now to shale oil. Oil
shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing a solid material (kerogen)
that converts to liquid oil when heated. Since 1913, our government has known
about the existence of shale oil. In fact, even before then the pioneers in
covered wagons knew about shale. They found it going west in the 19th century and used it for axle grease in their
wagon wheels. So the end use of shale oil as petroleum took place long before
the country was unified coast to coast.
Currently, the Department of the Interior and
the Bureau of Land Management moderately estimate that there are 800 billion
barrels of recoverable shale oil from shale in the Green River Formation which
goes through Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. This is three times greater than
the known oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. When you total up our known reserves,
it comes to 848 billion barrels of oil.
Therefore, when you hear the President or any
other politician or political pundit say that we have anything less than the
848 billion barrels of oil, then you now know that they are either
ignorant of this matter or are intentionally trying to mislead you for
political reasons.
