Department of Interior: We have 25 times more oil in North Dakota, alone, than we predicted back in 1995 and there may be more . . . . much, much more

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—
Released: 4/10/2008 2:25:36 PM

Contact Information: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey Office of Communication 119 National Center Reston, VA 20192 Editor's notes:  in 1995, the prediction regarding underground reserves in North Dakota (the Bakkan Formation) was 151 million barrels.  As the headline states,  that has been increased to 4 billion barrels.   According to the US Energy Administration,  the US uses just under 20 million barrels of crude day or 7 billion barrels per year.  Go here at the EIA for confirmation.  Now,  while the increase in the Bakkan Formation is substantial,  mathematically,  in real world consumer terms,  the formation would provide on half year of our national need.  That is the bad news.   There is a second geo-survey,  done in 2006,  that is much more promising.  In that the study,  the late geochemist,  Leigh Price,  believes there is as much a 531 billion barrels in this single reserve,  or (using 7 billion per year as our baseline) 74 years of crude without importing a single barrel from elsewhere.   Lots and lots of oil. -- on federal lands,  off-shore, in the Rockies,  Alaska,  the Bakkan Reserves  Of course,  I understand that this is not the end-all to our transportation problems,  but it does give us time to get our house in order and make the switch from fossil [transportation] fuels to electric or sail or whatever idiocy the Left comes up with next.  Let's not forget that solutions might be found in retooling carburetor systems  and the like.  Biofuels are not the answer.   At any rate,  we have time to solve the problem,  and maybe more time than we might have imagined,  a few years ago.   In addition to the above studies,  offering short term solutions,  there are the oil fields in the Rocky Mountains.  Shale.  At present,  mining oil from shale is very expensive,  but we do have the technology.  It just needs to be refined [the technology] and the rewards,  nationally speaking,  are well worth the effort.   Estimates for this type of oil mining is 2 trillion billion barrels.   If I were president (I know,  a scary thought in and of itself),   I would look into ways of encouraging the private sector to invest their efforts and money  (not the taxpayers') with a view of reducing the over-all need for transportation fuel (that is what is killing us, transportation fuel supplies).  I would look into making the Mississippi River basin a source for hydraulic energy supply for the entire nation.  Fresh water supplies are "for ever" and the creation of an energy corridor need not be environmental burdensome or problematic to fish and wildlife.   This solution would require the creation of a new power grid from that basin to the rest of the nation.  In some areas of the nation,  perhaps solar is a solution, but most estimates give this no more than a 10% contribution to our energy supply.  The actual supply of water is a freebie and why we have given this over to the tent people and kooks in this nation, is beyond me.   I am 67 years old and when I was a much younger man,  stories of oil companies buying off private inventors,  people who had created fuel and carburetion systems that could produce 100 to 200 miles per gallon in a standard gas guzzler.  Common day myths?  I don't know,  but these stories  were not just rumor.  Such stories could be found in hot rod magazines and the daily newspapers,  back in the day.   Point of post:  to make the case for this declaration: Resolved:  we have time, plenty of time, to actually solve this problem - the national energy crisis.    Issues that stand in the way include greed in the private sector and corruption in the public.  Understand that greed is not the bigger of the two problems,  although it is of monstrous proportion.   Of course the Progressives want you to believe otherwise,  but there is so much corruption in the public sector that it should be embarrassing to us all.   Scarcely half of all federal monies allocated to a project or program administered at the state and local level,   actually go to that project or program.  Before the year of 2009 was over  (including the 2008 TARP fund), somewhere between 7 and 24 trillion dollars went through TARP  -  Google that, if you doubt me.  Where did all that cash go ("cash" on paper,  of course).  No one knows!!!  Worse yet,  no one who should care and has the power to search out the answers is even looking.  This whole episode is being swept under the carpet and those in government,  Obama and his Progressive do-gooder pretenders along with the GOP power brokers,  are to blame . . . . . . .  equally to blame.   I say,  "Return to the power of the individual States (via the 10th Amendment) because holding Central Government responsible is simply a figment of our collective imagination."  I am not suggesting that we rid this nation of a federal government,  only that we should return to its original purposes.