Considering "known" reserves aren't really known at all I find the map a little off. Working in the oil industry, I can say that Iraq may have that much oil but it can only produce enough to barely sustain the exploration.

The real comparison is comparing Kuwait, SA, Iran, Iraq and our levels of intervention to ... Africa.

While we haven't invaded Venezuela, there's a reason why it gets the kind of attention it gets in the media.

why don't you guys go back to whatever socialist/communist country you guys came from and leave us real Americans alone?

If so, it's a bipartisan dereliction. It's not as if Clinton or Carter or LBJ or JFK or Truman did anything different.

Really? Are you privy to the discussions of Cheney's secret meetings with the oil companies in the White House? You know, the ones they had before they started raking in the record profits they are now making...

At best only half of any oil field right now has been extracted. As the price continues to climb then more "old oil fields" will continue to be harvested.

Sure, but since the infrastructure was built upon an assumption of cheap energy it can only flew with the oil prices so much before it breaks. It's not like if oil is 5x as expensive you'll just pay more at the pump. The entire economy would crash.

Only thing that will move US towards more energy independence is exactly what voters hate - higher prices!

So it's not clearly the case that the "oil barons", as James puts it, want the price of oil to go down.

It's a bit more complex.

And most oil production is now concentrated in control of a few governments (Saudi's, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, etc). That doesn't bode well for managing, especially where a country such as Mexico has a very large young population. Domestic political agendas, rather than economics, will drive extraction.

this map is horribly dated. Mexico has found huge reserves and is tapping into it now. In addition, I think Brazil has hit on a huge reserve as well rumored to rival anything Saudi Arabia has.

Oil companies are pretty notorious for falsifying how large their reserves are. That having been said here are the official numbers as of 2006:

here

Saudi Arabia is #1. Mexico is #14 and Brazil is #16. The US is #11 by the way. The scary thing is that we are not an oil poor country by any stretch of the imagination. We are oil rich. but we are so insanely oil gluttonous that it doesn't matter.

Maybe someday somebody will stop and realize that that isn't such a great plan.

It's not as if Clinton or Carter or LBJ or JFK or Truman did anything different.

Carter tried to get the ball rolling on alternative energy sources. Reagan put an immediate halt to that. Solar panels on the white house and all that...

Its too bad that the President is far more committed to oil company profits than to freeing America from dependence on middle eastern oil

If so, it's a bipartisan dereliction. It's not as if Clinton or Carter or LBJ or JFK or Truman did anything different.