Who Is Blocking Our Efforts to Become Independent of Foreign Oil?

Last year the US Geological Service updated their 1995 findings.  They reported that the Bakken field in the western part of the Dakotas and the eastern part of Montana is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’a Prudhoe Bay.  As reported, we could have access to 500 billion barrels of light, sweet oil.  To put this find into perspective, there’s enough crude to fully support the US economy for over 2000 years.  I would think that would certainly give us enough time to develop a long term strategy to deliver cost effective alternative sources of energy.

The report also indicates that total reserves exceed 2 trillion barrels.  For comparative purposes, that’s over 20 times as much as known reserves in Iran and in Kuwait, and almost 10 times as much as Saudi Arabia.

So, why are we not extracting this oil?  We could be driving down the price of crude, driving down the price of gasoline at the pump for our citizens,bolstering the US economy, putting people back to work in the USA, and extricating this country from the grasp of foreign powers and influence.  Are we at the mercy of the environmentalists?  Could OPEC be involved in blocking efforts?  Why isn’t the federal government pushing  development of the Bakken field?