If you will read the liberal headlines, we have been perilously close to consuming our last barrel of crude oil for the last thirty years.  There has been a constant refrain and a screeching noise made by environmentalists that the CO2 from the fossil fuel we are using is raising the global temperature and sea levels.  Liberals do not show great skill in forecasting, or common sense in understanding what is happening with the environment.  Liberal environmental activists refuse to discuss the consequences of their recommendations.  A little research proves that contrary to the forecasts, the United States is awash with new crude oil finds.

I had previously written an article about the Bakken Field in Montana.  The oil production there is approaching 900,000 barrels a day and natural gas production is over reached nearly 900 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day).  The oil and gas production continues to exceed the industries ability to transport it from the oil field.

Adding to the oil found in Montana, are new finds in one of the older fields in the nation, the Permian Basin field in West Texas.  Once thought to be near the end of its productive life the Permian Basin is enjoying a boom.  New recovery methods promise to recover more oil than has been pumped from the West Texas Oil fields.  

Oil exploration groups in Utah and Colorado have been drilling into the shale deposits in the Rockies.  The GAO estimates those shale formations may yield over 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil.  There is a problem with the oil found in this area; the shale does not want to release it.  New technology promises 3 trillion barrels of oil which is several times more oil than world has used since petroleum was first refined.

Not to be left out of the excitement, California is also enjoying an oil boom.  The Monterey Shale formation in the San Joaquin Valley could again make California a major player in crude oil production.  The potential to recover the shale oil has brought out a fully energized army of environmentalists that seek to block any recovery process.  The industries current favored process, hydraulic fracking, is in the cross hairs of liberal environmental groups pushing for prohibitive legislation.  The other 49 states should impose special export fees on all petroleum products destined for California.  If the citizens of California are unwilling to pump and refine their own oil, we should charge them a premium for the petroleum products we allow them to purchase.  

There have been several new oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico and there are numerous other promising areas on both the East and West coasts.  Off Shore drilling technology is improving rapidly.  Not only is there advanced off shore technology being employed in South America, the Chinese have been drilling wells in Cuban waters.  So far, none of the Chinese wells have been commercially successful. 

There have been numerous new oil discoveries in South America, but the granddaddy of all the new finds is located in Australia in the Coober Pedy field.  The size of that field is being discussed in terms of equaling Saudi Arabian oil.  New technologies, growing worldwide and improved economics are driving aggressive oil exploration worldwide.  Not only are we not running out of oil, neither is the rest of the world.  The real shortage today is in refining and crude oil transportation.  

We have never developed a national energy policy that attempts to balance economics and valid environmental concerns.  There are valid environmental concerns but a concern of running out of petroleum is definitely not valid.  I would offer you the thought that the forecasts on global climate change are no more accurate than the forecast that the world would run out of crude by 2020.