THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 91, April 8, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
HUGE DAKOTA OIL POOL COULD CHANGE ENERGY-CLIMATE DEBATE
By Dennis T. Avery
THE BAKKEN OIL RESERVES IN THE GREAT PLAINS OF THE U.S.A. & CANADA: HUGE DOMESTIC OIL RESERVES THAT
COULD CHANGE THE POLITICAL ECONOMICS OF THE WORLD -- PLENTIFUL & CURRENTLY AFFORDABLE "HOME-GROWN"
OIL THAT IS NEITHER CONTROLLED BY AN ISLAMIST OR CORRUPT REGIME IN THE MIDDLE EAST NOR HIDDEN UNDER A
FEDERAL WILDLIFE RESERVE IN THE U.S.A. -- THE NEWS THAT WILL TEST GLOBAL WARMING THEORY, CLAIMS OF A
MASSIVE BUILD-UP OF HUMAN-INDUCED GREENHOUSE GASES TRAPPED IN THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE, & OTHER
PROPAGANDA EMPLOYED TO JUSTIFY THE ANTI-ENERGY & ANTI-DEVELOPMENT POLICIES ADVOCATED BY THE
ENVIRONMENTALISTS -- CONSIDERATION OF FACTS INDICATING THAT A PERIOD OF NATURAL GLOBAL WARMING IS
COMING TO AN END & WE ARE ENTERING A PERIOD OF NATURAL GLOBAL COOLING
FULL STORY:
Al Gore is launching a $300 million ad campaign to support the banning of fossil fuels. But our faith in man-made global
warming will now be tested by news that up to 400 billion barrels of light, sweet crude oil for America’s future can be
pumped from under Manitoba and North Dakota. That’s more oil than exists in Saudi Arabia and Russia put together.
This high-quality oil isn’t controlled by Muslim zealots, or hidden under a federal wildlife refuge. Moreover, it can now be
cost-effectively retrieved with computer-directed horizontal oil wells, probably at $20 to $40 per barrel.
Environmentalists and the U.S. government are blocking new coal-fired power plants in the U.S.A. With no coal to burn,
natural gas is becoming impossibly expensive. Biofuels are proving worse for the environment than gasoline. Nuclear
energy is “dangerous.” Erratic and expensive windmills have seemed the best the West could do.
But the Bakken Formation in the Great Plains holds a monster oil deposit. Estimates of its potential range as high as the
U.S. Geological Survey’s figure of more than 400 billion barrels. The Saudis have 260 billion barrels of proven reserves,
the Russians just 60 billion.
Until recently, Bakken was thought too expensive to drill. But oil is now at $100 per barrel. Even more important, new
computer-controlled drills can go sideways for hundreds of feet to suck the petroleum out of oil-bearing shale strata,
instead of just punching short vertical holes through shallow rock layers.
At the higher end of its potential, Bakken could change the political economics of the world. One hundred billion barrels
would be worth $9 trillion at today’s prices. Will America turn its back? Will we give up our autos, airplanes and air
conditioners, if the oil to power them is affordable and “home-grown”?
Consider:
The net global warming since 1940 is a miniscule 0.2 degree Celsius,
even after 70 years of unprecedented human-caused carbon dioxide
emissions.
Meanwhile the forcing power of additional CO2 has declined by
perhaps three-fourths. There can’t be much left.
Seven years ago, NASA discovered a huge cloud-controlled “heat
vent” in the sky over the Pacific. It emitted enough heat during
1980-2000 to have dealt with a doubling of greenhouse gases.
The earth has not warmed since 1998, despite a continuing rise in
atmospheric CO2.
NASA now admits the oceans “stopped warming” about 4-5 years
ago. The end of the warming trend was documented by 3,000
high-tech Argo ocean-diving buoys.
The planet actually cooled in 2007, attested by three major
temperature monitoring sites. The decline was apparently
predicted by a downturn in sunspots that began in 2000.
The earth’s recent warming seems to be part of the moderate natural 1,500-year climate cycle controlled by the sun —
which was discovered in the Greenland ice cores in 1983. The three discoverers of the cycle won the Tyler Prize, the
“environmental Nobel,” in 1996.
Short-term, there’s a strong 80 percent correlation with both the sunspots and the cycle in Pacific sea temperatures. Both
now seem to be predicting a moderate 22.5-year decline in global temperatures. We had a similar decline from 1940 to 1975
— also while CO2 levels were rising. Such “double sunspot cycles” factor heavily in our records of rainfall, droughts and
monsoons, as well as in temperatures.
Bottom line: We now find massive man-made warming only in unverified computer models that have consistently predicted
far more warming than we’ve gotten. With a downturn in temperatures — and lots of home-grown oil — Al Gore’s anti-fossil
ad campaign may not be fully persuasive.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421. Email:
cgfi@rica.net
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume X, 2007
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity