I remember back in the 90's, then President Clinton vetoed a bill to expand drilling in the USA.  The reason being it wouldn't matter because it would be 10 to 15 years before there was any production...  Fast forward about 15 years...  Where are we?  We still have a completely incoherent energy policy.  The GOP under President Bush #2 tried to get things moving.  There were relaxed environmental regs for coal plants, a few bills to expand drilling, etc...  However, there were those stupid jackass RINOs in the way along with people like the huckster Al Gore and his fraud "Global Warming" crap.  So...  There is now an article out that effectively states the obvious.  That no matter how much the kook Liberals claim we, "can't drill our way out of this mess," the fact is we could.  If only these same kook Liberals would let us.  I remember reading an article in Wired magazine several years ago stating we had like 1,000 years of oil in shale out west.  What do we get now from the kooks?  There is an anti-fracking movement.  Fracking being important to shale oil production in ND.  Anywho...  While President Obama invests $10 billion into Brazil's offshore oil industry, we have a purposeful rationing policy here in the USA.  We could be energy independent, but it would require guts beyond those of most current politicians...