I’ve written about America’s tremendously large energy reserves before. We have the largest reserves of oil, natural gas and coal of any country in the world, including Russia and Saudi Arabia. The major obstacle to accessing these reserves is the federal government. Here’s a video presentation by Dr. Steven Hayward on how to unleash our gigantic energy reserves and create a million jobs. The interesting part is these estimates for energy reserves and jobs are at our current technological capabilities. We’ve shown in the past that our ability to advance technologically increases the amount of energy we can extract many times (from Energy for America):
- The amount of oil that is technically recoverable in the United States 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. For comparative purposes, the technically recoverable oil in North America could fuel the present needs in the United states of seven billion barrels per year for around 250 years.
- Moreover, it is important to note that that “reserves” estimates are constantly in flux. For example, in 1980, the U.S. had oil reserves of roughly 30 billion barrels. Yet from 1980 through 2010, we produced over 77 billion barrels of oil. In other words, over the last 30 years, we produced over 150 percent of our proved reserves.
- Restrictions in the form of federal bans and leasing combined with declining offerings of lease acreage mean only about 2.2 percent of America’s offshore acreage is currently leased for production.
- Proved reserves of natural gas in the United States and throughout North America are enormous, and the total amount of recoverable natural gas is even more impressive. The EIA estimates that the United States has 272.5 trillion cubic feet of proved reserves of natural gas. The total amount of natural gas that is recoverable in North America is approximately 4.2 quadrillion (4,244 trillion) cubic feet.
- Given that U.S. consumption is currently about 24 trillion cubic feet per, there is enough natural gas in North America to last the United States for over 175 years at current rates of consumption.
This is a story that needs to be told over and over until it sinks into the heads of enough Americans that it influences the way we vote for our representatives in Congress. We need to take off the shackles of unnecessary government interference and regulation, and produce our way to an invigorated national economy. Windmills and solar panels are nice, but it’s going to be a long, long time before they can produce enough energy to supply our demands (if they ever do). The cumulative effects of all those jobs and the decrease in energy prices will have a huge impact on our economy.
