About the O-i-i-l

This report on Venezuela's nationalized oil company is just another reason for the U.S. to launch a national program to become self-sufficient in oil production, even if we have to bypass some environmental laws to do it. I'm not against environmental regulations, but ours are so cumbersome and timewasting that most of the time all they do is prevent needed developments. Utah, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming have vast deposits of oil shale that dwarf the reserves of the Arabs and Persians, and they could be developed for about $40 per barrel, but that will be fought by the environmentalists and those who think we can switch to solar, ethanol or hydrogen with the flip of a switch, when none of those has proven competitive with coal powered generation and petroleum.