On Apr 14, 8:44 pm, "Matt W. Barrow"
wrote:
"PhilS1965" wrote in message

...

If we were to exploit every potential domestic oil resource we have,
including Bakken, the Alask Wildlife Refuge and all offshore sources
within our territorial waters, it would barely make a dent in our
consumption. This is a simple fact acknowledged by the oil companies
themselves.

Cite?

From the conservative New York Post:

http://tinyurl.com/2np4yb

" Overall, experts estimate that the undiscovered resources on the
federal Outer Continental Shelf that could be recovered with today's
technology are some 420 trillion cubic feet of gas and 77 billion
barrels of oil..."

This editorial is actually close to your view, but the numbers are
telling. When added to our proven reserves of around 20 billion
barrels, this great undiscovered 77 billion barrels gives us enough
oil to supply ourselves (just the United States) for about 13 years.
That's at the current rate of consumption, of course.

Opinions of oil company executives on peak oil:

http://www.energybulletin.net/37027.html

The opinions are many and varied, of course, as one might expect. But
many of them are surprisingly candid.


People need to get over the utopian idea that there's some vast
untapped oil resource out there, but we're somehow being prevented
from using it. As we all learned in elementary school, fossil fuels
are a finite resource, and they're running out. There shouldn't even
be a political component to it, but for some reason, there is. Facts
shouldn't be this controversial.

Yeah, they've been telling us that since the 1880's and good little menchen
keep barfing it out in public.

Look, you may have misunderstood my intentions. I actually don't have
major objections to exploiting known oil reserves. I think a few basic
environmental guidelines are in order, since I don't happen to like
beaches that can't be walked on or surf that can't be swum in, as I'm
sure you don't either. I'm simply trying to be realistic with numbers.
Most of the estimates I've given you are actually oil company
estimates. If we take the oil companies at their word, we could drill
every square centimeter of the North American continent, both offshore
and on, and buy ourselves 13 years.