Oil Production In America : Answer to Dependence

Note : The problem still exists as you can see - Blogger, I hope, is working on it. I sent several messages to that effect. The Slickster! Increasing Domestic Oil Production Source: Jon Basil Utley, "The Case for Increasing Domestic Oil Production," Reason Magazine, March 23, 2011. For America, there is a way to greatly minimize, if not fully end, our dependence upon shaky Middle East dictatorships for oil. With dependable Canadian production and using our own shut-in resources, we can vastly reduce our need for imports. This should be a vital, immediate national interest, says Jon Basil Utley, associate publisher of the American Conservative. America imports some 10 million barrels per day (bpd). Of this, Canada sends us two million bpd and Mexico sends about one million bpd. Nigeria, Angola and Venezuela send another 1.5 million bpd, all of which is pretty reliable. That comes to around 4.5 million bpd, which means that there is 5.5 million bpd coming from less-reliable sources, including the Middle East. Here are six things the federal government could do to increase domestic oil production, says Utley. The Alaska pipeline now runs two-thirds empty -- it alone could carry 1.5 million barrels more per day if drilling were allowed. The Gulf of Mexico could be producing another half million barrels per day within five years if permitting were expedited by the Department of the Interior. A crash program to provide abundant LNG (liquid natural gas -- compressed to reduce its volume by a factor of 600) pumps at major interstate truck stops would encourage conversions from using diesel oil, which is imported. Modern oil production allows drilling horizontally miles and miles out in all directions from a single platform;reasonable permissions for drilling off our Atlantic and Pacific coasts could produce billions more barrels of oil. Allowing building of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada's massive tar sands would bring in another half million barrels per day as production ramps up. Congress needs to correct the Environmental Protection Agency's rules to force it to make decisions within 30 days and to use rational measurements instead of a few parts per million as grounds for declaring any product hazardous and illegal.