America Should Be 'Oil' For More Drilling

The United States and the global economy will need a great deal more energy in the decades to come. It is said that within the next two decades we'll need about 40 percent more energy than we used in 2005. No one disputes this, and that figure is probably wildly underestimated... [snip]

It probably comes as a shock to most people that the United States is the world's third-largest oil producer (Saudi Arabia and Russia hold the top two spots). We produce a lot of oil and can produce much more. But we have hamstrung our oil industry by forbidding further drilling in Alaska, (where the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could possibly provide for as much as 5 percent of our current oil needs) or in offshore oil fields in the Atlantic, Pacific and the Gulf where vast resources are believed to exist.

But instead of focusing on how can we increase oil and gas supplies, the Democrats in Congress, sounding increasingly like Hugo Chavez, have been working to reduce supply in the face of constantly rising demand. To wit: they've said no to more exploration, and have been pushing for higher taxes on oil companies to recoup what they call "excess profits." Such policies make us more dependent on foreign oil while throttling supply, which in turn has contributed to high prices at the pump... [snip]

Meanwhile, America is being taken to the cleaners by needlessly high oil and gas prices caused by congressional ignorance and inability to come to grips with the only viable solution: Start boosting energy supplies and the cost to consumers will come down.

[again: the US has the greatest identified-recoverable energy reserves on the planet - but is the only country to refuse to develop its own resources. The Saudis are laughing their asses off]

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