By Selwyn Duke

The director of  economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, Irwin Stelzer, has penned a very interesting article called "It’s a myth that the world’s oil is running out."  As the title indicates, Stelzer puts forth the thesis that the Earth contains enough accessible oil to last for generations.  Moreover, he says that when these ample fuel resources are not exploited, it’s only due to factors such as politics, bad economic decisions and war.  And he provides several examples of nations in which this is the case, such as:

Nigeria — ". . . where security problems have shut down about 20% of the nation’s
capacity of 2.5m barrels a day and discouraged new investment, and Iraq,
where political paralysis and terrorists have kept production at less than
half its potential."

Russia — ". . . [which] has made it clear that foreigners who invest in its oil industry might
be playing a game with Vladimir Putin known as heads I win, tails you lose.
Find nothing and you lose your money; find substantial reserves and the
state squeezes you until your shareholders’ pips squeak."

Mexico — where legislation that would allow for the more effective exploiting of its oil resources ". . . is stalled by left-wingers who
have seized and are sleeping at podiums in both houses of congress."

Saudi Arabia —
where the ". . . royal family has announced that it will not expand capacity."

Venezuela — where "President Hugo
Chavez’s cronies are inadequate substitutes for the technicians they have
replaced, so production is falling, while foreign investors are reluctant to
trust hundreds of millions in exploration dollars to a regime that treats
contracts as the first step in a negotiation."

Stelzer also mentions the situation in our nation, where we are hamstrung by environmentalists and cannot drill in places such as Alaska and off the coasts of Florida and California.  This is especially significant because we have control over the policies in our country, and there is no good reason to not exploit oil resources that could wean us off the sheiks and snakes of Dar al-Islam. 

And,  yes, I care about the environment as much as the next guy (probably more).  It’s my understanding, however, that tapping the oil reserves in question would impact upon 0nly a minuscule percentage of the territories in which they’re found.  Of course, none of this matters to radical environmentalists, who, like so many ideologues, will die with their agenda on.

Read the rest of Stelzer’s piece here.

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