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Oil, America's Inexhaustible Resource
Townhall.com ^ | September 1, 2015 | Stephen Moore

Posted on 09/01/2015 7:06:58 AM PDT by Kaslin

"The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity, our long-term security on a resource that will eventually run out, and even before it runs out will get more and more expensive to extract from the ground." -- Barack Obama, 2011.

In August 1859 on the eve of the Civil War, Col. Edwin Laurentine Drake completed the first commercial oil well in the United States on Oil Creek just outside of Titusville, Pa. Over the next century and a half, oil and gas companies have extracted tens of billions of barrels of oil from the ground from California to New York and nearly everywhere in between.

During that time period, one thing has been constant: Doomsayers and declinists have predicted that we would soon drill the last barrel of oil. Famously in the 1920s, the U.S. Department of Interior projected less than a few decades worth of recoverable oil in the United States. Jimmy Carter declared in 1980 that by 2000 we'd be nearly out of oil -- running on empty.

Last month, the Department of Energy reported that the U.S. hit a new energy milestone: We produced 9.52 million barrels a day. That was very close to the highest output level in recorded history. So much for running out.

Something else has happened in recent weeks that almost no one -- least of all President Obama -- would have predicted. The price of oil fell below $40 a barrel. Adjusted for inflation, that makes oil cheaper today than at almost anytime in history. Adjusted for wages, we work less to buy gasoline and oil today than nearly ever before.

Welcome to the age of oil and gas abundance. One of the people who predicted all of this 40 years ago was the late, great economist Julian Simon. When cultural icons like doomsayer Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University were assuring us that the end was nigh when it came to oil, food, copper, tin and farmland, and that the earth would soon be freezing over because of cooling trends, it was Julian Simon who declared they were all wrong. He was regarded as a lunatic, in today's left-wing jargon, a "denier," but he was right, and the "scientific consensus" was entirely and almost negligently wrong.

The experts at the Institute for Energy Research recently published an inventory of American energy given current technological capabilities. Their research shows that we have 500 years worth of coal and natural gas and at least 200 years worth of oil. The wellspring of energy in America will never run dry.

The reason we never run out of "finite" resources is that human ingenuity runs forward at a far faster pace than the rate we use up oil, gas or food. The shale oil and gas revolution -- thanks to fracking technologies -- nearly tripled overnight our oil and gas reserves. We now produce three times as much food with one-third as much manpower at one-third the cost than we did in 1950.

That the left-wing doomsayers have been time and again discredited in their Malthusian warnings has several policy implications. First, would you keep buying stock from a broker who kept giving you all the wrong advice and losing your money?

Then why do we listen to the same crowd of doomsayers who still say we are running out of oil or that the earth is going to heat up into a fireball? Their credibility and their "scientific consensus" have rarely been right. They are like the boy who cries wolf over and over.

Second, there are high costs to false fears. President Obama has many times justified the $100 billion we've wasted on renewable energy subsidies by the claim that we're running out of oil.

Third, many of the same Malthusians who told us we were running out of oil and food are the intellectual giants behind the global warming industry. These are the ones who say that the debate is over on global warming, that they can't possibly be wrong, that the science is settled and that those who question their religious-like conviction have been bought off by the Koch brothers or big oil. Given their abysmal track record, is it asking too much of them to consider that they might just be wrong?

Several years ago, I declared on a television show that America will never run out of oil and gas, and that our supplies are inexhaustible. I was flooded with angry letters and emails. My favorite note came from a junior high school science teacher who wrote me: "How could you say such a stupid thing? Even my sixth-graders understand that oil is a finite resource." Well, a sixth-grader might believe that tripe.

What is disconcerting is that the president of the United States, the media and many "scientists" still believe it. Paul Ehrlich once said that one thing the world will never run out of "is idiots." Alas, he was right for once.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: antifracking; climatechange; energy; epa; fracking; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; goodnews; methane; oil; opec; petroleum; popefrancis; putinsbuttboys; romancatholicism; russianstooges

1 posted on 09/01/2015 7:06:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Not only are we getting better at recovering carbon resources, but the design of the Earth leads to the continuous creation of new oil. We do not need “renewable” fuels. Oil already IS a renewable fuel.

Calcium Carbonate (chalk) + Iron Oxide (rust) + Di-hydrogen Monoxide (water) at tremendous pressure about 60 kilometers below the surface produces hydrocarbons which form into hydrocarbon chains (oil).


2 posted on 09/01/2015 7:13:09 AM PDT by TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed (Yahuah Yahusha)
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To: Kaslin

For all intents and purposes, America has an unlimited supply of hydrocarbons. Natural gas even more so that oil.

Using the Fischer-Tropsch process, one can transform natural gas into oil to make lubricants, gasoline, jet fuel, etc.

God has blessed us


3 posted on 09/01/2015 7:15:17 AM PDT by bestintxas (every time a RINO loses, a founding father gets his wings.)
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To: bestintxas

Exactly why Obama wants to throttle oil and gas development in the US.


4 posted on 09/01/2015 7:18:47 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks ("If he were working for the other side, what would he be doing differently ?")
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To: Kaslin
Flashback: Obama admitted energy prices would 'skyrocket' under his policies

Michael Bastasch
06/25/2013

President Obama laid out his new plan to tackle global warming Tuesday. In 2008, he made comments about “bankrupting” coal plant owners and making energy prices “skyrocket.”

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted,” Obama said during a meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board.

Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad,” he added. “Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to, uh, retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.” ...”

http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/25/obama-admitted-energy-prices-would-skyrocket-under-his-policies/#ixzz3jAwSj2EJ

************************************************************

From Politico, April, 2012

If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them,” Obama said, responding to a question about his cap-and-trade plan. He later added, “Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

Of course, cap and trade is long dead. But coal-fired power plants are powering down nationwide, and they are blaming the Obama Environmental Protection Agency. The president’s critics say proposed greenhouse gas regulations for future power plants are designed to cripple the coal industry.

And just like with another 2008 quote — Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s famed call to “figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” — Republicans say the Chronicle clip shows what’s really in the president’s heart, that high electricity prices and the death of coal have always been Obama’s goal.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/74892.html#ixzz3jAzdi18H

5 posted on 09/01/2015 7:21:48 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Kaslin
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Maxine Waters warns Shell president in House committee hearing

Posted: May 23, 2008
2008 WorldNetDaily

A report by Fox News, captured in a clip posted on YouTube.com (Must see video! https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=maxine+waters+socialize) , showed Waters challenging the president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, to guarantee the prices consumers pay will go down if the oil companies are allowed to drill wherever they want off of U.S. shores.

Hofmeister replied: "I can guarantee to the American people, because of the inaction of the United States Congress, ever-increasing prices unless the demand comes down."

The Shell exec said paying $5 at the pump "will look like a very low price in the years to come if we are prohibited from finding new reserves, new opportunities to increase supplies."

Waters responded, in part, "And guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing … uh, um..."

The congresswoman paused to collect her thoughts [for about 5-6 seconds this went on, while her colleagues behind her laughed].

"...would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies..."

The oil executives responded, according to Fox News, by saying they've seen this before, in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

Article: Congresswoman threatens to nationalize oil industry Maxine Waters warns Shell president in House committee hearing:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090116083410/http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65111

6 posted on 09/01/2015 7:22:26 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Kaslin
Last month, the Department of Energy reported that the U.S. hit a new energy milestone: We produced 9.52 million barrels a day.

Except we really didn't.

- - - - - -

EIA revises US oil production estimates lower; June output sank
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/08/31/eia-revises-us-oil-production-estimates-lower-june-output-sank/#30727101=0

The federal government believes daily U.S. crude production fell to 9.3 million barrels in June, down by 100,000 barrels in the prior month, as low oil prices continue to discourage drilling.

The Energy Information Administration said Monday its monthly report on domestic oil supplies, slated to be released in full soon, will use a new approach to collecting production data. Instead of relying largely on state agencies to provide data, it has begun to survey oil companies that drill in 15 states including Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. It’s an effort to improve the accuracy of its monthly estimates of the nation’s oil output.

This has led it to revise its monthly production data for January through May downward by at least 40,000 barrels a day and up to 130,000 barrels a day, with the biggest declines coming from Texas. There was also an uptick in production from the Gulf of Mexico.

Texas’ daily oil production, the EIA said, were revised downward by 100,000 barrels to 150,000 for the first five months of the year. Producers in the Gulf put out 10,000 to 50,000 barrels a day more than the EIA had previously estimated from January to May. The overall average for the year came in at 9.4 million barrels a day.

The agency said it based its previous estimates on tax information and state agencies but “given the timetable for EIA’s data products, much of that information is lagged and incomplete at the time of publication.”

aewrfawf

7 posted on 09/01/2015 7:24:09 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed

You are correct.
Dr. Thomas Gold’s “Deep Hot Biosphere” opened my eyes to the fact that much of our petro related fuels are erroneously called “fossil fuels”.
Incredible that first world media, gov’t and academia forbid discussion, much like they do for facts countering official AGW narrative.


8 posted on 09/01/2015 7:54:56 AM PDT by MarchonDC09122009 (When is our next march on DC? When have we had enough?)
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To: Kaslin

The goal is to bankrupt the oil/coal/gas/nuclear/ electric generation industries. Then, once ran straight into the ground by EPA and government decrees, those industries can be bought up for pennies on the dollar by government backed cronies, or nationalized due to urgent need, and again haned over to government backed cronies to run.

It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Control the flow of energy, and you will control the economy, period.

Take a look at who is buying up energy interests, and who is investing heavily in energy sector and energy transportation companies.


9 posted on 09/01/2015 8:06:16 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed

Abiotic.


10 posted on 09/01/2015 8:13:00 AM PDT by skimbell
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To: factoryrat

“Then, once ran straight into the ground by EPA and government decrees, those industries can be bought up for pennies on the dollar by government backed cronies, “

Already happening: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/19/climate-philanthropist-george-soros-invests-millions-in-coal


11 posted on 09/01/2015 8:16:50 AM PDT by bestintxas (every time a RINO loses, a founding father gets his wings.)
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To: bestintxas

Yes, exactly. Seen that posted here as a matter of fact.

And who was it that just bought a 10% stake in Phillips Petroleum? Don’t recall, seen that here too.


12 posted on 09/01/2015 10:05:26 AM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it.)
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To: Kaslin; 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ALlRightAllTheTime; ..

GOOD NEWS!

(If the environ-MENTAL-ists will let us recover it all).

PING!


13 posted on 09/06/2015 7:27:42 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Democrats and GOP-e: a difference of degree, not philosophy)
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To: 11B40; A Balrog of Morgoth; A message; ACelt; Aeronaut; AFPhys; AlexW; alrea; America_Right; ...
GOOD NEWS!

Global Warming PING!

You have been pinged because of your interest in environmentalism, alarmist wackos, mainstream media doomsday hype, and other issues pertaining to global warming.

Freep-mail me to get on or off: Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to all note-worthy threads on global warming.

Global Warming on Free Republic here, here, and here

Latest from Global Warming News

Latest from Real Climate

Latest from Climate Depot

Latest from Greenie Watch

14 posted on 09/06/2015 7:29:56 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Democrats and GOP-e: a difference of degree, not philosophy)
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To: Kaslin

The millions of incalculable decisions that make up the free market process can solve problems that the socialists in university lounges and the halls of government institutions can only dream of...


15 posted on 09/06/2015 7:48:42 PM PDT by IFly4Him
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