dk: Well, since we're still drilling on land in Texas, California and Alaska, we should have no trouble getting the oil from North Dakota and Montana.

I'm still remembering that the governor of Montana said, not too long ago, that their coal reserve IN MONTANA ALONE could, using the Fischer-Tropsch process for creating liquid fuels from coal (invented almost 100 years ago), supply ALL the country's liquid fuel needs (gasoline, jet fuel, diesel) for the next 150 years.

Ignore the damn Climate Change argument for a moment. Even in an emergency it's going to take a LONG time to move off of fossil fuels. But THIS... We *could*, in theory, have sites up and running in FIVE years that would make it so we could thumb our noses at the Middle East.

Complication? The fact that oil is commodotized. What that means is that Exxon wouldn't be able to buy the wells and refine the fuels and pay just for production costs (including federal taxes that would help our deficit) and undercut every tinpot dictator. No, it'll go through "the markets" where speculators will make the most for themselves.