Green River

Gas is $2.79 per gallon in Hastings today and that is down just about a dollar since last year. Since the US uses about 135 billion gallons per year this gives consumers an extra 135 billion dollars to spend on other items. We can all thank North Dakota for that since the oil patch out there is now producing 1 million barrels per day. This has done more for the middle class than anything else. If the government would open the Green River Formation for drilling it would bring in another 15 million barrels a day and bring the price of gas down lower, get rid of our negative balance of payments and we would no longer have to import oil from the Middle East. The US currently produces 13 million barrels per day and 3 million are converted to distillates and exported. The US uses 20 million barrels per day so they must import 10 million barrels. With the additional 15 million from Green River the US would not import any oil and would have an additional 5 million barrels to export. At the current price of $80 per barrel that means $400 million dollars per day or $150 billion dollars per year pouring into the US economy. This does not include the natural gas that would come from Green River and that could be used to replace oil giving additional oil for export. The more we export oil and more we replace our oil with natural gas the cleaner the environment. This is a win-win.