[hedgetrimmer]

The US has vast reserves of tar sands and shale oil that can be tapped and developed as alternative sources when the price of crude gets too high.

You'd be right, but you are not considering the enforcement of sustainable development on the US by treaty to the UN.

Nancy Pelosi and Bill Clinton know all about it,they used environmentalists and environmental law to lock up natural resources. The EPA, BLM, Parks Service and other federal agencies are fully on board sustainable development and while the current crop of bureaucrats and politicians still have their jobs, no new oil fields will open in this country.

An example close to me is the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary. It was created, illegally I might add because it wrested control of state land and gave it to the federal government improperly, in the early 1990s to stop oil drilling off the coast of central California. It has morphed into one of the most restrictive land and sea use policies in the country. It is killing off whole industries, fishing being one and agriculture the next. It has also created a monster bureaucracy with armed federal agents who are empowered to shoot you if you even so much disturb a cup of sand on the bottom or frighten a flock of birds.

[JCEccles]

Interesting. I'll have to look into that.

The tar sands and oil shale I was referencing are mostly in fairly desolate areas of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.

[hosepipe]

[ An example close to me is the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary. It was created, illegally I might add because it wrested control of state land and gave it to the federal government improperly, in the early 1990s to stop oil drilling off the coast of central California. ]

Alaska is dripping with oil and methane mostly on federal lands.. Most of Alaska is federal land.. ANWR is the tip of the oil barrel.. This federal land thing spits in the eyes of all state residents, in any state.. The ONLY federal land should Washington D.C... else we are not a republic but a mere democracy..