Once again the nation is experiencing gas prices exceeding $4.00 per gallon and as predictable as the sun rising in the East, Obama claims there are no easy fixes and that the real solution is the forced development of alternative energy -- after all the United States has only 2% of the world's oil reserves.   This is not only demagoguery of the worst sort but an outright lie.

The United States is, for the second time in less than three years, being reminded of its absurd dependence of foreign sources of energy, most notably, oil.  The upheavals in the Middle East have driven up the cost of a barrel of oil into triple digits as it was in 2008 and 2010.  However were there stability in this region the long-term price of crude would still be at or near this price range due to the increasing demands of countries such as China and India and the deliberate devaluation of the dollar by the Federal Reserve and the Obama administration.

In 1982 China oil consumption was 1.7 million barrels per day; in 2010 it had increased to nearly 10.0 million barrels per day.   India, also in 1982, consumed .7 million barrels per day, today India is using 3.0 million barrels per day.   The United States increased its consumption by 3.6 million barrels per day during this same period.   (http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/index.cfm)

In the meantime America has decreased its domestic production by nearly 3.0 million barrels per day.

The country's dependence of foreign sources has increased to 54% of the daily requirement as compared to 45% just 15 years ago.  Over half of that amount comes from countries that are inherently unstable or ruled by despotic regimes whose interest it is to de-stabilize the United States. (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html)

Yet the United States is sitting on the world's largest untapped oil reserve.  A natural resource that would not only mitigate the over $400 Billion sent overseas to other countries but could create untold millions of jobs and put the country on a sound financial footing. 

The untapped reserves are estimated up to 2.3 Trillion barrels, nearly three times the reserves held by the OPEC countries and sufficient to meet 300 years of demand, at today's levels -- for auto, truck, aircraft, heating and industrial fuel, without importing a single barrel of oil.   (http://kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/The_U.S._s_Untapped_Bounty_080630.html)

Here is a look at some of the largest untapped reserves:

The Bakken Fields in North and South Dakota.  New drilling and oil recovery technology is making the capture of this oil feasible and some development is now underway.  It is estimated that there is at least 200 Billion barrels of oil in this region.  At a price of $100 per barrel the value of this find is $20 Trillion.

The Outer Continental shelf.  It is estimated that around 90 billion barrels of oil sit beneath the ocean bed 50 to 100 miles off the shore of the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts.  The value: $9 Trillion.

The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  About 10 billion barrels are locked up here with a current value of $1 Trillion.

Tar Sands:  Around 75 Billion barrels of oil could come from these areas which are similar to the Canadian tar sand fields and which now produce about 2 million barrels per day.  The value:  $7.5 Trillion

Oil Shale.  This is the most massive area of potential oil production in the world with an estimated 1.5 Trillion barrel potential.  The technology necessary to extract this oil is now in place and being operated on a pilot project basis.  The value of this resource:  $150 Trillion

There also the very real potential that further finds will be discovered as technology continues to improve.

In total the value of the potential oil reserves of the United States listed above exceeds $187 Trillion.  The current national debt is $14.2 Trillion or less than 8%. 

Despite the protestation of President Obama and the environmentalists the world and particularly the United States is not running out of oil.  Their foolish tilting at windmills and solar will never produce energy sufficient to operate a $15Trillion and hopefully growing economy.  It will be decades if not the rest of the 21^st Century before any meaningful substitute for fossil fuels will be developed and additional time and investment will then be necessary to distribute the product.

Mankind's ingenuity has and will continue to develop technology to safely extract process and market fossil fuels (which is a naturally occurring resource).  But the United States must begin now to open the areas for exploration, and permit the construction of refineries and pipelines. 

It is beyond absurd that a country sitting on so much natural wealth refuses to exploit it for the benefit of its citizens and instead deliberately puts the nation in the position of being subjected to the whims of others and face national insolvency.  This can only be a deliberate strategy by those determined to destroy the basis of the American free-market economy.