Total onshore Federal lands throughout the U.S. are estimated to contain 31 billion barrels of oil.” However, the Bureau of Land Management estimates that 62 percent of oil is on federal (taxpayer) land and is off limits as a result.

Even more disturbing, BLM believes that just 8 percent of onshore federal oil and 10 percent of on-shore federal natural gas is “accessible under standard lease terms.”

The Minerals Management Service estimates oil and gas resources in undiscovered fields on the Outer Continental Shelf total 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of gas. Yet, by Executive Order and annual Congressional bans attached to appropriations, the majority of these fields are off limits. Of the 1.76 billion Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) acres, only an estimated 43 million acres are leased.

According to the Congressional Research Service, oil shale in the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming possess an estimated 1.8 trillion barrels of oil. Nationwide, estimates for total oil reserves from oil shale are as high as 6 trillion barrels. However, Democrats used the Omnibus Appropriations Bill of 2008 to restrict access to all oil shale on federal lands. This precludes exploration and production for 80% of all available oil shale in America.