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May 25, 2010
Energy reserves
There is a desire in our country to become more energy independent. This could involve developing conventional sources like oil and gas as well as non-conventional fuels like solar and wind power. Regarding oil and gas, do the experts say we have significant quantities?
Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:
"We just had a new report published from the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners, and they did a study of energy resources in the U.S. and it was a very upbeat study. They found that we have in the U.S. -- as well as in offshore U.S. waters -- 200 billion barrels of oil waiting to be used and 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
"Now to put that in perspective, if we were to access both of those fuels that would mean we would have more resources than most OPEC countries, and it could virtually eliminate our need for imported oil. So we do have a lot of resources.
"Getting to them is one issue, and in fact as we have seen with the leak in the gulf -- the oil leak in the gulf -- one of the big issues there is environmental.
"What I suspect will happen is that this is where technology will come to the rescue. We will develop better and safer and more cost effective ways of accessing these resources. But the bottom line is they are there."
Posted by deeshore at May 25, 2010 09:12 AM