Power to Spare

In God We Trust

Power to Spare

IBDEditorials.com

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything?

One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy.

"The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby, drill,'" Biden said at an Owens fundraiser, referring to Palin's own campaign slogan last year. "No, it's a lot more complicated, Sarah, than 'Drill, baby, drill.'"

Actually, it's not, according to a new report produced by the Congressional Research Service, hardly an outpost of the vast right-wing conspiracy or on the payroll of Big Oil. The report says that if all our energy resources are added up and converted to a barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), the U.S. has the largest reserves in the world.

According to the CRS, the U.S. has 1,321 billion barrels of oil (or barrels of oil equivalent for other sources of energy) if you combine its recoverable natural gas, oil and coal reserves. Russia is close behind with 1,248 billion barrels BOE. Other energy-producing nations, including many that export oil to the U.S., lag behind.

Of course, much of our world-leading reserves are off-limits by government edict. We recently commented on the federal government designation of 200,541 squares miles off the coast of Alaska as critical habitat for the abundant polar bear, effectively killing hopes to exploit the vast energy riches of the American Arctic.

Alaska's Chukchi Sea, part of the designated habitat, holds more oil and gas than anyone thought — 1,600 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered gas, or 30% of the world's supply and 83 billion barrels of undiscovered oil, 4% of the estimated global resources.

The CRS report also notes the U.S. has 28% of the world's coal reserves, with Russia again coming in second with 19%.

Biden, of course, is famous for his rope-line remark in the 2008 campaign in response to a question on energy: "We're not supporting 'clean coal,'" he said. "Guess what: China is building two every week — two dirty-coal plants. And it's polluting the United States. It's causing people to die." He went on to say, "No coal plants in America. Build them, if they're going to build them, over there."