Every Saturday, president Obama gives a radio address, a custom begun by Ronald Reagan and continued by presidents ever since. Yesterday, the campaigner-in-chief spoke about the auto industry and energy production in the USA. While Obama did not address the subject of gasoline prices head on, he spoke about why drilling for domestic oil is not an answer to America's energy needs. Here is the key part of his speech:
But we can’t just drill our way out of this problem. While we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil, we only have 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. We’ve got to develop new technology that will help us use new forms of energy. That’s been a priority of mine as President. And because of the investments we’ve made, our use of clean, renewable energy has nearly doubled — and thousands of Americans have jobs because of it.
The sad truth is that what Obama just said was a lie, and Obama knows that. The "2 percent of reserves" claim arises because Obama is talking about "proven" reserves, a number calculated in accordance with the securities laws. Oil companies can only list reserves as "proven", for example, if the oil is located in a place where one can legally drill. In other words, all of the oil in Alaska, all of the oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and all of the oil on federal lands out west are not included in "proven" reserves. The reason, of course, is that Obama has made it illegal to drill in these locations. Even the US Department of the Interior puts out a figure for undiscovered reserves which brings the US total up to 155 billion barrels from 21 billion barrels of proven reserves. Then there is also the shale oil which the Department of the Interior does not include in the figure for reserves. Right now about one quarter of all oil produced in the USA comes from shale. The reserves in shale are enormous, but even if they were just one quarter of the undiscovered reserves estimated by the Interior Department, they would bring total reserves to just about 200 billion barrels of oil, or ten times the 2% that the president talks about. Let's do the math: ten times 2% is 20%. But this is not the end of the calculation. Twenty years ago, no one would have assumed that one-quarter, or even 1% of American oil production would be coming from shale. Technology advanced, and America is getting the benefit of that advance. And the reason for the advance is that drilling and experimentation was allowed to go ahead. Indeed, the estimates of the shale oil and oil sands in the USA are actually so high, that there is enough oil there to double or triple the total oil reserves.
So America, which uses 20% of the world's oil, according to Obama, seems to have enough oil reserves to satisfy its own needs by itself for something like a century. We do not have 2% of the world's oil. Properly counted, we have at least a quarter of the world's oil. But the way to get that oil to the market and to reduce gas prices is to drill for it. That's correct; we need to drill more. Let me say that again. THE WAY TO GET MORE OIL TO MARKET AND REDUCE THE PRICE OF GASOLINE IS TO DRILL MORE!!!!!!!!!
It is sad that Obama's main concern with regard to oil and all energy is not to help the economy and the American people by reducing the price we all pay for fuel. Obama is only worried about getting re-elected. In Obama's world, if re-election requires lying about oil production, so be it.
Obama does not care about lying if it advances his chances for winning in November. The American people deserve better. Obama has got to go!
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