Many good things have been mentioned in this thread:
- Lower fuel prices brings down the price of everything
- End the transfer of wealth to rogue nations - $330 billion spent on foreign oil every year.
- More tax revenue (leases, royalties etc) - with the right people in power - possibly lower taxes
- More jobs and wealth creation - The North Slope in Alaska contributed $50 Billion to the nations economy, directly impacting every state in the US. It is estimated that drilling in ANWR would create 250,000 new jobs.
- Less dependence on the Middle East in general - no “blood fo oil” as the liberals might say
- More exporting nations diminishes the power of the militant-supporting regimes in the ME
These are the estimates of technically recoverable oil & gas I have seen:
Shale (Utah, Wyoming, Colorado) - 800 billion barrels (RAND)
OCS - 66.6 to 115.3 Billion barrels of oil and 326.4 to 565.9 Trillion cubic feet of natural gas (MMS)
ANWR - 9 to 16 Billion barrels (ANWR website)
And as Brazil and other countries have found, if you look, there is no telling what you might find.
Drill Here! Drill Now!!
Don’t forget that natural gas is a free bonus when we drill for oil. We would not have to have those natural gas tankers - potential WMDs - form the Middle East in our harbors on the East Coast.