Oil in our own backyard

I am not the most politically astute person around and do far less reading than I should. But I am getting a little cranked up by articles I'm finding about the availability of oil here in the US - that's inaccessible because of politics. Just go read this article and see if you don't get mad too:

The politics of oil shale

Be sure to note this part:

One acre of corn produces the equivalent of 5 to 7 barrels of oil. One acre of oil shale produces 100,000 to 1 million barrels.

And while we're on the topic, don't forget what happened the last time a Democrat was in the White House:

The Clintons' Coal-Gate

A large part of America's energy dependence on foreign sources can be traced to Sept. 18, 1996, when President Bill Clinton stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon on the Arizona side and signed an executive proclamation making 1.7 million acres of Utah a new national monument.

Why would he dedicate a Utah monument while standing in Arizona? Well, this federal land grab was done without any consultation with the governor of Utah or any member of the Utah congressional delegation or any elected official in the state. The unfriendly Utah natives might have spoiled his photo-op.

Am I just another one of those people who wants to rape the land so I can keep driving my Suburban and run my a/c on high all summer? (Hey, who would buy the Suburban now? I have it, I can't just throw it away.)

Well, no. But I can see how stupid it is not to use the resources here, all the while claiming environmentalist status. And I can see the need for new sources of energy but we have to get there, don't we? I'd say we are probably behind the curve on that but how using some of what we've got as we go about finding better alternative? Which is what Victor Davis Hanson said in the article in my last post.

Can you imagine anything better right now than telling Saudi Arabia "we don't need your oil anymore?"