Oil- Energy-and-Obama

“Oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.”

President Barack Obama
Speech on the Gulf Oil Disaster
June 15, 2010

THE TRUTH:
A September 1, 2005 article in The Seattle Times
reported a U.S. Department of Energy study that
revealed discovery of massive oil-shale deposits
in a geological region of the western U.S. known
as the Green River Formation, which is thought
to contain the largest oil reserves in the world.
GREEN RIVER FORMATION:
While oil shale is found in many places on earth, by far the largest deposits are in the Unites States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. Assessments of oil reserves in the Green River Formation range from 1.2 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all Green River reserves are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could meet just a quarter of that demand, the estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation would last for more than 400 years.
Source: http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/oilshale/

Yes, oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, as President Obama claimed, but not because America is running out of safer places to produce oil. They are drilling in more risky deepwater locations because Democrats have blocked exploration at shallower depths, and in lucrative locations on land, such as the Green River Formation.
FACT CHECK
OTHER U.S. OIL RESERVES
Bakken Formation: According to a 2008 report by the U.S. Geological Survey based on assessment techniques that did not exist ten years earlier, an area in North Dakota and Montana known as the Bakken Formation has up to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil — 25 times greater than estimated in 1998.
Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge: According to a USGS assessment in 1998, ANWR’s coastal plain has up to 16 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil. But, because Democrats have since blocked the use of modern assessment techniques in ANWR, the area’s reserves could be far higher than previously believed. If the 1998 estimate for ANWR turned out to be as far off as was the 1998 estimate for the Bakken Formation, ANWR could contain as much as 400 billion barrels of oil, an amount greater than the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
If you hear that America has no place to drill for oil except