Politics of Oil

Want to know why gas is so high?

Here is a clue...

U.S. Policies Put Most U.S. Oil Off-Limits to Drilling

(CNSNews.com) - Huge basins of untapped oil can be found on federal lands throughout the United States, according to a new report from the federal government. But much of it cannot -- and may never be -- recovered, because it lies under national parks and national monuments, or it is subject to environmental laws and restrictions that make drilling prohibitive.

"The total onshore resource is 31 billion barrels," said BLM's lead scientist Richard Watson, who authored the report. "Of that, 19 billion barrels are currently inaccessible or 62 percent. A little over 2 billion barrels, or 8 percent, is accessible under what we call standard lease terms."

If you add in the 85.9 billion barrels of oil that lie offshore, as determined by the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, there are 117 billion barrels of oil on lands owned or managed by the U.S. government.

But all expansion of offshore oil recovery is currently off-limits.

Adding in what's available on privately held land, the figure rises to 139 billion barrels of oil, according to the government - more than the known oil reserves of Iran, Iraq, Russia, Nigeria or Venezuela, respectively.

CNS News

So now you know who to blame for the high price of gas...

Semper

Actually, the price of gas should be much higher, if we internalized all of the costs of gasoline like health effects, the cost of the military to ensure the supply, environmental degredation, etc, that we are currently paying thru taxes. What should be done is lower taxes and raise gas prices by that amount so the true cost of gas would be (more) transparent.

I personally am glad that we do not trash anywhere just to get more gas....that makes no sense.....let's just ruin the ecosystems that we depend on (for food, waste 'disposal', breathable air, drinking water) so we can have cheap gas to put in our SUV's.

We must move beyond petroleum/carbon-based fuels to fuels that we get from within our own borders. Otherwise we will always be living in a state of war and dependent on wacko nations for our fuel.

Agreed. One of the things I remember 12 years ago when they were having the debate over drilling and pipelines in the Alaskan state, was that dems and enviro-nazis were saying, "it's not even like they will be working for ten years or so. Solutions will present themselves without the need to destroy our environment."

Well, its over ten years later. Now millions world-wide will starve to death from the rising cost of items and food that is based on the rising costs of fuel.

It is so stupid that some idiots on the left think that this problem can be fixed overnight. While I do agree that the use of fuel needs to change, there is no way that this can be done overnight.
And if they had started ten years ago, we would have cheaper oil , less conflict in the middle east and south america, more money for the implementation of alternative fuels, and less starving kids.

Yeah, go green! (waves little flag)