American Crude
- From: Jim E <nothere@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2008 20:30:50 -0600
American Crude
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?secid=1501&status=article&id=308357139242611&secure=1&show=1&rss=1
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, October 08, 2008 4:20
PM PT
Energy: With a media wind at his back, Barack Obama regularly gets
away with false and distorted statements. He repeated one Tuesday that
seems superficially plausible but should not go unchallenged.
Read More: Energy | Election 2008
Just as he said during the Sept. 26 University of Mississippi debate
with John McCain, the Illinois Democrat claimed during the Nashville
town hall setting that "we have 3% of the world's oil reserves and we
use 25% of the world's oil. So what that means is that we can't simply
drill our way out of the problem."
It's disappointing that McCain failed to call out Obama on his
figures, because he had an opening big enough to drive an Exxon Mobil
tanker truck through.
The problem isn't Obama's claim about consumption. The U.S. does go
through about a quarter of the oil used across the globe (it also, by
the way, produces 28% of the world's goods and services, but that's
another story).
No, the real problem is that the oft-repeated claim of the U.S. having
3% or less of world reserves doesn't stand up.
Obsolete figures show that the U.S. holds just 20 billion of the 1.3
trillion barrels of the world's crude reserves.
But that doesn't include the estimated 200 billion barrels of oil
trapped below two miles of shale in the Bakken Formation, a wildly
rich reserve that stretches through Montana and North Dakota.
Neither do Obama's shock data include the more than 130 billion
barrels off our coasts that Congress had placed off limits, nor the
1.2 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of shale oil in the Green River
Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
And we haven't even mentioned Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge, where 10 billion to 20 billion barrels of easily tapped oil
have been sitting idle for decades because a majority of policymakers
are cowed by pressure from environmental groups and won't allow
drilling in this remote and desolate area.
At one time, Canada was ranked 21st in global oil reserves. It is now
second, behind only Saudi Arabia. Its ranking jumped when the U.S.
Energy Department formally recognized that the Canadian tar sands hold
about 175 billion barrels of oil that is recoverable with current
technology under recent economic conditions.
Where will the U.S., currently 11th in the world, land in the rankings
when politicians and radical special interests can no longer deny
geological and technological realities?
Given that other countries are also likely to find or recognize new
reserves, it's possible America could be perpetually stuck in the 3%
range as a portion of world reserves. But the percentage would be
irrelevant, as total U.S. reserves will have grown exponentially.
Yes, we can drill our way out of the problem. Even at 3%.
.
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