ENERGY INDEPENDENCE - They say you should never look a gift horse in the mouth and they’re not talking about bad breath.
The Cuban government has armed itself with a couple of breath mints and once again teamed up with China and they’re looking right into our mouth. The Spanish company Repsol is teaming with the Chinese for installation of off shore Cuban drilling within 60 miles off the south of Key West. We will be able to see them from Florida capturing some five to 20 billion barrels of oil believed to lie in the coastal waters right under our noses.
In addition, there is a lot of hoopla right now over the Keystone Pipeline Project designed to bring billions of barrels of oil to us. Our economy and national interest will benefit. The TransCanada pipeline is poised to put 13,000 Americans to work to construct the pipeline–pipefitters, welders, mechanics, electricians, heavy equipment operators in addition to 7,000 manufacturing jobs that would be created. Additionally, local businesses along the pipeline route will benefit from the 118,000 spin-off jobs created through increased businesses for local goods and service providers.
It would begin in Alberta and extend through Saskatchewan, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma to existing terminals in Nederland and Port Arthur, Texas. The 2,500 miles of pipeline has been decried by environmentalist who continue to ignore the existence of 300,000 miles of pipeline in the continental United States. The major impediment to the Keystone Pipeline right now is the vacillation of the White House. By the way, China is now talking to Canada about getting to this oil if we don’t want to bother with it.
None of these reserves take into account the 2 trillion barrels of oil reserves beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains, the reserves in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the trillions of barrels throughout the continental United States, or the unmeasured trillions of barrels off shore of the United States.
Now let me give you some really good news. The U. S. Geological Service recently issued a report on a really big find – the Bakken Oil Fields. It is vast stretching from Montana into Canada. There is enough oil for 2,000 years and more. That’s not just good news for Americans, but for you and me.
James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East - more than 2 trillion barrels untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil reserves in the world today, reports the Denver Post. Our current U. S. budget indebtedness of 15 trillion dollars could easily be paid off within 5 minutes. It could kick-start the economies of the Western World.
In summary, we have more oil inside our borders, than all other proven reserves on Earth combined.
Official estimates are:
● 8 times as much oil than as Saudi Arabia
●18 times as much oil as Iraq
● 21 times as much oil as Kuwait
● 22 times as much oil as Iran
● 500 times as much oil as Yemen
And it’s right here in the good ‘ol US of A
Los Angeles should be taking the lead in promoting the development of these resources since we are the most dependent in the states. In addition Los Angeles tolerates a 16% unemployment rate and an 11% mortgage delinquency leading to a high foreclosure rate.
Los Angeles can start with development of the oil field right here at La Cienega Blvd and Stocker Avenue.
We continue being held over a barrel and one can only predict that when OPEC again says ‘touch your toes’ we will again respond with ‘say when’.
(Kay Martin is a writer and a new contributor to CityWatch. His years of travel and work included tours in Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, Hawaii, Latin America, and the Pacific. He can be contacted at [email protected].) –cw
Tags: oil, Los Angeles, Keystone Pipeline, Cuba, China
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 7
Pub: Jan 24, 2012