- Fuel prices got you down? Need a job? Well, prepare to
unlearn everything you've learned about domestic energy production. Don't
ever let another green "warmer" tell you, "We can't drill
our way out of this mess." That's a lie.
-
- Contrary to environmentalist talking points, we know
that by conservative estimates, the United States enjoys three times the
oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Additionally, we have enough natural gas
reserves to last nearly a century. Let that sink in.
-
- Developing these resources could create nearly a million
jobs and pump revenue into a desperately deflated economy. Imagine an America
no longer forced to rely for our key energy supplies upon those who would
just as soon see us dead.
-
- If President Obama and the alarmist green lobby would
simply get out of the way, we even might use our wealth of resources as
a bridge to cleaner, renewable energy sources, creating jobs and boosting
the economy along the way. Everyone wins.
-
- Consider that according to the U.S. Department of
Energy, there are as many as 1.8 trillion recoverable barrels of oil in
the Green River Formation in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming alone. This is
in the form of oil shale - organic-rich rock from which oil and gas can
be extracted.
-
- A more conservative estimate by the Rand Corp. puts
it at 800 billion barrels. To put this in perspective, the United States
has 75 percent of the world's oil shale, and those 800 billion barrels
represent more than three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
-
- The Rand study, conducted in 2005, predates recent advances
in shale-oil extraction, including horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing
(fracking). These are revolutionizing oil and gas production.
-
- Environmentalist naysayers simply have it wrong. It won't
take decades to tap this oil. In fact, we can produce enough oil to free
ourselves entirely from foreign oil imports in the next 10 years. The Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) supplies more than a third of our
oil. Why? We have all we need and more.
-
- Yet Mr. Obama fatalistically projects that via a combination
of natural gas use and oil drilling, we can only reduce our foreign oil
imports by one-third by 2025. In reality, we can reduce them by half in
just five years.
-
- Still, in his trademark fashion, this president says
one thing and does another. He has aggressively rescinded policies enacted
by his predecessor to encourage drilling, making it extremely difficult
for independent companies to get leases on federal lands, where roughly
65 percent of this oil lies. This means fewer jobs, greater foreign fuel
dependency and a weaker economy.
-
- Natural gas is another part of the solution. It's a cheap,
clean-burning fuel source and, according to a 2010 Massachusetts Institute
of Technology study, it lies within our borders in 92 years' worth of rich
abundance.
-
- Here's the problem: Most of this natural gas is accessible
only via fracking. In Colorado, for example, 90 percent of gas wells require
fracking. The technique, which occurs thousands of feet below ground, involves
pumping a solution of water, sand and .5 percent lubricating chemicals
at high pressure to create cracks in the rock that will allow oil and gas
to flow out and be collected.
-
- Yet, where free-market innovation and progress occur,
Berkeley-type liberals are sure to tread. A huge anti-fracking lobby has
emerged, asserting - against all the evidence - that fracking is harmful
to the environment (mustn't disturb the Sugarloaf tree).
-
- The lobby's primary claim is that fracking contaminates
groundwater - a claim refuted by Mr. Obama's own head of the Environmental
Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, who recently admitted, "I am not
aware of any proven case where the fracking process has affected water."
-
- Yet the anti-frackers demand that this clean, safe technology
be banned or at least regulated into nonviability. When greenie activists
say "jump," Mr. Obama asks "how high?" His administration's
regulatory heavy-handedness has rendered 90 percent of this natural gas
and oil inaccessible.
-
- According to studies by Penn State and the
energy consultant Wood Mackenzie, if the president would back-off
the frack-off and allow those who actually produce something to use these
fantastic new oil and gas technologies, more than 800,000 new jobs would
materialize quickly.
-
- Imagine an immediate need for natural gas vehicles and
new natural gas power plants. Someone has to build them. Every drilling
project stimulates the local economy as landmen, roughnecks and drilling
crews fill hotels and restaurants and shop locally with their honorably
earned greenbacks.
-
- According to an ICF International study, the industry
could produce nearly $2 trillion in government revenue as well through
lease payments, royalties and taxes. Billions more would stay here at home
that would otherwise go overseas to OPEC and other foreign oil interests.
-
- Over the years, the left has successfully seeded major
misconceptions about the "Big Oil" boogeyman. The fact is that
hundreds of small, independent oil companies help supply the country with
energy. They pump millions into the economy through private and government
leases and royalty payments. They employ hundreds of thousands of Americans.
- E
- conomist Peter Ferrara, writing recently in Forbes magazine, observed,
"While [Ronald] Reagan used to say that his energy policy was to 'unleash
the private sector,' Obama's energy policy can be described as precisely
to leash the private sector in service to [his] central planning
'green energy' dictates."
-
- Mr. Obama, tear down this leash. Who knows - Brazil and
Saudi Arabia might actually become two of our "best customers."
-
- __________
-
- M<http://us.mc389.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=jmattbarber@comcast.net>att
Barber is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves
as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action. (This information is
provided for identification purposes only.)
-
- Jared Barber, Matt's brother, is an Independent Petroleum
Landman working in the Oil and Gas industry. He is a member of the AAPL.
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