August • September 2006 • Vol. XXIV No. 6 • An Arnold Publication

From the Editor—

Oil rich, willpower poor?
 

With severe unrest threatening oil supplies in the middle east—with major supply pipelines going down, taking 8% of our domestic oil away temporarily—doesn’t it seem a bit odd that we seem to be willing to continue sending billions of dollars annually to people who don’t necessarily have our best interests at heart?

But odd or not, the fact is our government and our oil companies give away a piece of our country every time we buy gasoline.

The really crazy part of it all is that right here in the good-ol’
U. S. A. we have enough oil to last a hundred years, even taking into account our constantly increasing demand. Certainly we have enough to buy the time we need to find a legitimate alternate fuel and a renewable source of energy.
Forgetting the vast untapped oil reserves still in Alaska, and the huge deposits of oil off our Pacific and Atlantic coasts, there is an estimated 1.1 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil locked in oil shale in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. These numbers come from a recent Rand Corporation report. Oil shale is any sedimentary rock containing solid bituminous materials that are released as petroleum when heated. The Rand report conservatively estimates that this resource could produce at least 800 billion barrels of oil, which is triple the total reserves of Saudi Arabia.

It is true that we need a faster, more efficient technology to get the oil from shale, but this editor wants to know why our tax dollars aren’t going to fund research to do so? This editor wants to know why we are not drilling for oil in our own waters, instead of sending billions overseas?

With all this oil in reserve, do you wonder why, to paraphrase the President, “We’re still hooked on foreign oil?”

Well, I have been asking that question for years, and I think I know the answer.

We’re an oil rich country that keeps electing politicians who lack the willpower to do anything about it, who worry more about their future re-election than about our country.

Sadly, that makes it our own fault, doesn’t it?
                                                                                C. H. Bush, editor