American Crude

Investor's Business Daily -- American Crude

No, the real problem is that the oft-repeated claim of the U.S. having 3% or less of world reserves doesn't stand up.

Obsolete figures show that the U.S. holds just 20 billion of the 1.3 trillion barrels of the world's crude reserves.

But that doesn't include the estimated 200 billion barrels of oil trapped below two miles of shale in the Bakken Formation, a wildly rich reserve that stretches through Montana and North Dakota.

Neither do Obama's shock data include the more than 130 billion barrels off our coasts that Congress had placed off limits, nor the 1.2 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels of shale oil in the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

And we haven't even mentioned Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where 10 billion to 20 billion barrels of easily tapped oil have been sitting idle for decades because a majority of policymakers are cowed by pressure from environmental groups and won't allow drilling in this remote and desolate area.

At one time, Canada was ranked 21st in global oil reserves. It is now second, behind only Saudi Arabia. Its ranking jumped when the U.S. Energy Department formally recognized that the Canadian tar sands hold about 175 billion barrels of oil that is recoverable with current technology under recent economic conditions.

Where will the U.S., currently 11th in the world, land in the rankings when politicians and radical special interests can no longer deny geological and technological realities?

Given that other countries are also likely to find or recognize new reserves, it's possible America could be perpetually stuck in the 3% range as a portion of world reserves. But the percentage would be irrelevant, as total U.S. reserves will have grown exponentially.

Yes, we can drill our way out of the problem. Even at 3%.