America is blessed with an abundance of energy and mineral resources that has delivered affordable power and fuel to American families, supported the creation of tens of millions of jobs, allowed the United States to become the global leader in oil and natural gas production, and delivered a powerful foreign policy tool – energy exports – to help ensure our national security.
America’s traditional energy sources have also seen innovation with new technologies that make the United States the most environmentally friendly country in the world for resource development and energy production. The revolutionary combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has allowed for miles of resource extraction with a minuscule physical footprint while scrubbers, combined-cycle power plants, and carbon capture and sequestration technologies all help reduce emissions from traditional energy sources.
The roughnecks, wildcatters and oilers of America’s innovative and entrepreneurial energy industry have delivered economic security and energy superiority, often despite government rules, regulations, and roadblocks designed to hinder American energy production.
The impediments to American energy dominance have never been greater than they are today as the Biden administration wages an open war on America’s energy industry, threatening to destroy the economic and national security that our abundant natural resources have provided.
Developing our Abundant Energy Resources
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates that in America’s Outer Continental Shelf alone there are 89.9 billion barrels of oil and 327.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that are undiscovered but technically recoverable. However, those estimates are decades old using out of date seismic survey technology. The United States should embark on an extensive scientific effort to map the seafloor of our Outer Continental Shelf to gain a better understanding of the vast unknown resources that lie beneath our waters.
Federal lands and waters belong to the people of the United States and should be opened for energy production if there are significant energy resources available or undiscovered but technically recoverable. This includes areas offshore in America’s Outer Continental Shelf that are currently off-limits to energy development –where there is state and local support for exploration – as well as areas such as the oil shale rich areas in the American West.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. holds more than half of the world’s oil shale resources. The largest known deposits of oil shale are located in a 16,000-square mile area in the Green River formation, which the USGS estimates show may hold more than 1.5 trillion barrels of oil – six times Saudi Arabia’s proven resources, and enough to provide the United States with energy for the next 200 years. New technologies should be funded through the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy to make oil shale extraction more economical and scalable.
America must embrace all of our energy and mineral resources to create the most comprehensive, innovative and secure energy economy in the world. The “none-of-the-below” energy strategy of the Biden administration places America at significant national and economic security risk to international energy cartels and unfriendly countries like China and Russia by refusing to develop our plentiful resources and keeping us from becoming more energy self-sufficient.
We must adopt a true all-of-the-above energy approach that relies on the bedrock of our traditional energy sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal, leverages known alternative energy sources like nuclear, hydro, solar, and wind, and invests in next-generation energy technologies such as hydrogen and small modular nuclear reactors.
Restricting Chinese Communist Party Access to American Energy
The United States should not waste energy resources by exporting to unfriendly countries like China. Unfortunately, from 2016 to 2023 Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) exports to Communist China exploded and in 2021 the United States became the second largest supplier of LNG to China behind Australia. In 2021 China also became America’s largest purchaser of LNG exports, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the market. Energy security is national security and our energy resources should be utilized strategically for a foreign policy tool and as an investment instrument for new, next generation energy technologies. The United States should restrict the export of LNG to China and their allies.
In addition to restricting LNG exports to China, the United States should prohibit the Chinese Communist Party or any of their affiliates from owning land on or adjacent to land leased for energy development and mineral production. This should include the federal waters of America’s Outer Continental Shelf or onshore lands, including but not limited to federal land and American farmland.
Investing Energy Revenues in our Energy Future
America’s oil, natural gas, and mineral resources are a valuable commodity that cannot be renewed, thus the revenues from extracting those resources should not be squandered. While the amount of federal revenue raised from oil, natural gas, and mineral royalties can vary from year to year depending on a range of factors, including commodity prices, production volumes, and leasing activity, the federal government continues to bring in billions of dollars from these activities.
According to the latest available data from the U.S. Department of the Interior, the federal government collected approximately $7.3 billion in revenue from oil, natural gas, and mineral royalties in fiscal year 2021. The revenue generated from these resources should be invested in a way that provides long-term benefits for the American people, not sent to the general treasury where they are spent one time on federal programs that do not create long-term value.
Recognizing the need for sustained, long-term investment in next generation energy technologies, the United States should take a bold step to invest revenues from American energy development by creating a sovereign wealth fund, supported by the rents, royalties and bonuses paid to the federal government from resource development on federal lands and waters. The United States is one of the only oil and natural gas rich countries without a sovereign wealth fund—even some of America’s energy rich states, such as Texas, Wyoming and Alaska, have their own state-run sovereign wealth funds that support education and other programs within the state.
The sovereign wealth fund would be required to maintain current funding levels for any specific program and activity supported by those revenues under current law. However, the remainder of the fund’s gains would be invested in next generation energy technologies such as new nuclear technologies, advanced domestic nuclear fuel supply, and hydrogen.
America has an obligation to the rest of the world to continue our energy supremacy, help lower global energy costs, and assert our strength via our energy resources and technologies. There is nothing the American energy industry cannot do if government allows for the revolutionary innovations that brought us to our current state of energy superiority.
Policy Positions:
- Commission extensive scientific effort to map Outer Continental Shelf using 3D technologies to better understand energy resource potential.
- Fund new technologies to make shale oil extraction more economical and scalable and unlock over 1.5 trillion barrels of oil in oil shale.
- Open federal lands and waters for energy development that have significant known and unknown but technically recoverable energy resources.
- The United States should restrict the export of LNG to China and their allies.
- The United States should restrict the ability of the Chinese Communist Party and their affiliates to own federal land or waters for energy development or adjacent land and water.
- Create a sovereign wealth fund, supported by the rents, royalties and bonuses paid to the federal government from resource development on federal lands and waters to invest in next generation energy technologies.