US Government: We have a lot of oil

Bury. Heads. In. Sand. Well, I guess the Obama administration is burying their own heads in the oil shale deposits in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. The US Government Accounting Office (GAO) released a report last Thursday morning detailing 1.5 trillion – yes trillion – barrels of oil that is recoverable from the Green River Formation.

And President Obama keeps telling you the United States only has 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. Liberals can spin it and the numbers any way they want, but what it comes down to is we’ve got a ton of oil. As a matter of fact, the largest known reserves of oil are not in the Middle East, rather they are right here in the United States, and the federal government and the Obama administration won’t let anyone touch it.

Directly from the GAO testimony, which by the way refers to an October 2010 study that does not seem to have been made public at the time. Wonder why?

In its October 2010 report, GAO noted that oil shale development presents the following opportunities for the United States:

• Increasing domestic oil production. Tapping the vast amounts of oil locked within U.S. oil shale formations could go a long way toward satisfying the nation’s future oil demands. Oil shale deposits in the Green River Formation are estimated to contain up to 3 trillion barrels of oil, half of which may be recoverable, which is about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.
• Socioeconomic benefits. Development of oil shale resources could lead to the creation of jobs, increases in wealth, and increases in tax and royalty payments to federal and state governments for oil produced on their lands. The extent of these benefits, however, is unknown at this time because the ultimate size of the industry is uncertain

The GAO goes on to note a few items that absolutely must be considered. First, you have to be able to get the oil out of the ground with minimal impact to the environment. This is important of course, and oil companies understand that. But big government liberals hate the oil companies as a matter of principle no matter what they do, so let’s leave it at that.

Second, getting to that oil in a responsible way is more expensive than accessing oil – as an example – in ANWAR. That too needs to be considered.

But for goodness sakes, we’re the best country in the world filled with smart individuals … we can get the oil at a reasonable cost with little impact on the environment. But no! The Obama administration thinks the oil companies and the people of the United States can’t handle the responsibility, so they lock you out.

They of course, know better than you or anyone else.

Jazz Shaw over at Hot Air writes…

If we move forward on this aggressively, the industry can safely access these resources which would significantly strengthen our hand on the international stage. But with the wrong approach, Washington could hog tie energy developers with excessive, expensive regulations or shut the entire process down by failing to issue permits to develop resources on these federal lands.

The public disclosure of these reserves is good news, but it’s only the beginning. And while I feel some trepidation in saying it, I’m afraid the ball is in Barack Obama’s court.