I believe our problem is a refining shortage and the fact it costs more to pump our oil than it does to import foreign oil. On the latter, doesn't it make more sense to buy imported oil and leave ours under the ground for a time when we either get cut off from foreign sources?
The only thing that's cheaper in foreign drilling and production is the labor, and that's where the figures become skewed.
If you factor in the initial and ongoing cost of technology and expertise imported from the United States which were and are required to develop and maintain foreign reserves, we produce cheaper than anyplace in the world, and this is disregarding the cost of transportation of foreign oil to our shores.
In most oil producing areas of the world, if assistance from the United States was eliminated, their oil would cease to exist in a very short time - at any price.
We can't wake up one morning and say we're going to stop the importation of foreign oil by producing more of our own.
It would take years to develop the infrastructure necessary to increase our production to that extent, and this is not going to happen without a clear political mandate to explore our own resources.
One point I will concede:
We need more refineries.