Drill or Bill?

I just finished reading an article in the latest edition of "AMAC Advantage", the magazine of the Association of Mature American Citizens. It was titled, "Mr. President, Let Us Drill". It explained that America has huge quantities of fossil fuels and they have fueled our factories, homes, highways and hospitals since their first use. It further stated that we have vast amounts of untapped forms of fuel that hold promise for generations to come. 

Here are some stated facts:

- The amount of oil that is technically recoverable in the U.S. is more than 1.4 trillion barrels, with the largest deposits located offshore, in portions of Alaska, and in shale in the Rocky Mountain West. When combined with resources from Canada and Mexico, total recoverable oil in North America exceeds 1.7 trillion barrels.

- That is more than the world has used since the first oil well was drilled over 150 years ago in Titusville, Pennsylvania. To put this in context, Saudi Arabia has about 260 billion barrels of oil in proved reserves. The technically recoverable oil in North America could fuel the present needs in the U.S. of seven billion barrels per year for around 250 years.

- Only about 2.2 percent of America's offshore acreage and less than 6 percent of federal onshore lands are currently leased for production because of restrictions in the form of federal bans and much of our future potential supplies of fossil fuels exist under lands owned by the federal government. Here are some areas that the federal government could open to oil and gas development: 
            - 10.4 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and 8.6 trillion            
               cubic feet of  natural gas.
            - 86 billion barrels of oil in the outer continental shelf of the lower 48 states and 420
                trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
            - 500 million barrels of oil in the Naval Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
            - 25 billion barrels of oil in the outer continental shelf of Alaska. 
            - 90 billion barrels of oil and 1.669 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the geologic   
                provinces north of the Arctic circle.


   - There is enough natural gas in North America to last the U.S. for over 175 years at current rates of consumption.

- North America recoverable coal could provide enough electricity for the U.S. for about 500 years at current levels of consumption.  

- The U.S.has 486 billion short tons of recoverable coal out of a total resource base of more than 10,320 billion short tons of in-place resources.  The Powder River Basin, which also covers parts of Montana, is one of the world's richest deposits of low-sulfur coal.

- To put it in a nutshell: 
            > OIL - We have enough oil to fuel every passenger car in the U.S. for over 430 
                            years.
                         - We have almost twice as much as the combined proved reserves of ALL
                            OPEC nations. 
                         - We have more than six times the proved reserves of Saudi Arabia.

             > NATURAL GAS - Enough to fuel homes heated by natural gas in the U.S. for
                                                 857 years.
                                              - Enough to provide the U.S. with electricity for 575 years at
                                                 current levels.
                                              - More natural gas than all of the next five largest national proved
                                                 reserves; Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan.

            > COAL - Provide enough electricity for about 500 years at coal's current level of
                              consumption for electricity generation.
                           - More coal than ANY other country in the world.
                           - More than the combined total of the top five non-North American             
                              countries' reserves: Russia, China, Australia, India, and Ukraine.


Folks, we have more combined oil, coal and natural gas resources than any other country on the planet! We have enough energy resources to provide reliable and affordable energy for decades, even centuries to come. But a scarcity of sensible government policy has led to soaring fuel prices and high unemployment rates. 


The solution is simple: Drilling equals jobs and affordable energy rates. By allowing hard-working people in the Gulf of Mexico to ply their trade, we can save 25,000 jobs. By allowing production in a small portion of ANWR, we can create over 250,00 jobs. 
By lifting the ban on new offshore drilling, we can create 1.2 million jobs.
We must increase domestic energy exploration, expedite the permitting process, and remove the bureaucratic red tape and barriers on job creators. 
Producing domestic energy will create jobs across the country, increase revenue to the federal government, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. 

Can we start the process now or do we have to wait until gas at the pump is $10 a gallon?

Check out: DrillBabyDrill.com

*Data, and research provided by the Institute for Energy Research.