Democrats Are Lying About The Size of US Energy Reserves

"With 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, the U.S. cannot drill its way to energy security," then-presidential nominee Barack Obama wrote on his campaign website in 2008. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated, "All told, the U.S. has only 1.6 percent of world's known oil supply." And in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added, "The math is simple: America has just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil."

The President, Ms Pelosi and their Democratic party followers are lying, Republican Senator Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works points to a new study from the Non-Partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) showing that the United States has more energy reserves than any other country in the world.

Dems Understate Nation's Resources By Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.)

This week as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee kicks off hearings on the Kerry-Boxer cap-and-trade bill, one argument Democrats will spout over and over is that America is a nation poor in natural resources. As seen from the quotes below, we are shamed into the belief that America possesses too little and consumes too much:

"With 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, the U.S. cannot drill its way to energy security," then-presidential nominee Barack Obama wrote on his campaign website in 2008. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated, "All told, the U.S. has only 1.6 percent of world's known oil supply." And in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added, "The math is simple: America has just 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil."

While America's proven oil reserves are just 21 billion barrels, which do constitute a small percentage of the world's proven oil reserves, it represents a narrowly construed, inaccurate depiction of America's true resource endowment. Their "math" calculates just a fraction of the real numbers.

To estimate proven oil reserves, a country must first allow drilling to prove those potential reserves - but for America that's impossible to do when 83 percent of federal onshore land is inaccessible or restricted due to our own government policies. Moreover, for decades Democrats have aggressively pushed these same policies to wall-off the Outer Continental Shelf for both the East and West coasts and large portions of the Gulf. Consequently, 21 billion is an opportunistic assessment for those who oppose drilling - if drilling is not allowed, reserves can't be proved. However, unlike our own Democrats, the Saudis, Canadians, Chinese and Russians pursue policies to prove and produce resources, not hide them. In this larger context, proven reserves represent a small, poor reflection of America's actual oil endowment.

Fortunately, a new government report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) sheds light on the true picture of America's energy resources. The comprehensive assessment looks beyond the Energy Information Administration's estimates of proven reserves to include government estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Minerals Management Service to include America's recoverable oil resources from areas both accessible and inaccessible to drilling. The results show the U.S. endowment of recoverable oil to be 167 billion barrels of oil, not 21 billion - nearly eight times higher than the number pedaled by Democrats. Remarkably, 167 billion is the equivalent of replacing America's current imports from OPEC countries for more than 75 years.

But still, oil resources offer only a glimpse of the full picture. CRS also reveals that America's combined recoverable natural gas, oil, and coal endowment is the largest on Earth. In fact, America's recoverable resources are far larger than those of Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th), and Canada (6th) combined. And, that's without including America's absolutely immense oil shale and methane hydrates deposits.

Why do Democrats so often downplay and deny America's abundance of energy supplies? Our overwhelming wealth of coal, natural gas and oil resources represent tens of trillions of dollars in economic growth and security, and millions of American jobs. By targeting carbon dioxide, the long-term goal of the Kerry-Boxer bill is to take these assets off the table - to tax these resources out of use. Cap-and-trade is merely the latest attempt to further isolate America's access to our own coal, oil and natural gas supplies.

With each passing day there is more truth that the rush to judgment surrounding global warming is simply a hoax and that our economy and jobs are being needlessly retarded by the Democrat's refusal to tap our own energy reserves. Through their suppression of America's energy resources, the Progressives move the country closer to their ultimate goal, a world-wide redistribution of income.