Crazy. Unfeasible.
It seems to congeal down into one core concept: to wean the United States of fossil fuel dependence in 10 years.
I mean, look around you. Almost every vehicle, powered by fossil fuel. Your car. Your truck. The truck that brings the food. The ships that bring the products. The harvesters that make the food. Our entire economic system, reliant on that one single source of energy-dense fuel.
And we're supposed to change that, all of that, in ten years? Some skepticism is inescapable.
But as I reflect on the seemingly self-evident impossibility of such an abrupt transition, that number stirs a recollection. Ten years? Why is that familiar?
The answer: because that's just about exactly how much petroleum is left on American soil.
Government and industry estimates of our current proven reserves put them at around 40 billion barrels. That includes conventional resources, projected fracking yields, and untapped offshore resources. Everything we've found.
We're pumping 10 million barrels of crude a day from the ground, more than ever in history, which is why gas prices are so very, very low.
The math is real easy, so easy a pastor can do it. Ten million a day gets you to three point six five billion a year. Times that by ten, and you've got thirty six billion.
At current petroleum production rates, the United States of America will be bone dry in just about ten years. There will be nothing left under our direct control. Nothing.
Which, as it so happens, is the same timeline as the "impossible" Green New Deal.
And sure, there's plenty of oil elsewhere in the world. In Russia. In Saudi Arabia. Our close and beloved friends, bastions of liberty and human freedom.
And in Venezuela, which has the richest proven reserves of any nation on the planet, almost ten times our own. I hear they're crying for some freedom these days.
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