McCain claims U.S. has 'the world's largest oil reserves'

[susanbanks44]

John McCain did an interview via satellite yesterday with WSYX ABC News in Columbus, Ohio, in which he claimed that the United States has the world's largest oil reserves. You can watch the video, or here's a transcript of the relevant section:

Reporter: Now, some say it would be health care, some say it's the war. To you, what is the single biggest issue for America if you become president?

McCain: I think the single biggest issue is to get our economy going, and a key element of that is creation of jobs, with alternate energy, clean coal, wind, tide, solar, automobiles that run on flex-fuel, hydrogen, and batteries. Making use of the coal reserves in Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The world's largest oil reserves are in the United States of America. And nuclear power. Nuclear power -- we can build 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030 and create 700,000 new jobs. We've got to put Americans back to work.


More:
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/9/30/8502/93952

[provis99]

1. so he's counting Canada as the U.S. now?

Canada has the world's largest oil reserves.

[susanbanks44]

3. Dementia is setting in.

[gatorboy]

16. Well, after we invade and take over, sure!

Picky, picky...

[Richardo]

2. Sounds like he meant 'coal' - he was talking about coal at the time.

I know I'm in the minority, but I'm not voting based on gaffes - I'm voting based on his total lack of qualifications.

[TheCoxwain]

7. Right- he meant Coal Reserves. C'mon guys ..there are plenty of other things to beat him up with.nt.

[anigbrowl]

20. Same here. Trivial stuff is trivial, i want to beat him with the big issues.

[Anywho6]

4. He just makes my head want to explode n/t

[ThomWV]

5. If you count the western oil shales he might be right. There's a shitload of oil out there

Problem is you need about $4 gasoline to make it profitable to extract the shit.

[Indenturedebtor]

13. Other problem is that you basically need to liquidate the rockies

Not to mention that whole global warming thing... Bleh.

[trof]

18. Yes. 'Oil' versus 'Cheap oil'.

For well over a century we've had cheap oil.
Sink a well, pump it out.
But you already knew that.

For the rest of you:
Extracting oil from shale and sands is MUCH more costly than drilling.
Drilling offshore is MUCH more costly than doing it on dry land.
Drilling FAR offshore (as we're looking at now) is MUCH more costly than shallow water (relatively speaking) drilling.

Oh hell yeah, there's puhlenty of oil left.
It's just gonna cost a hell of a lot more $$$ to get it to refineries.

$4.00 gas?
More like $10.00 gas.

[applegrove]

19. Isn't it shale. It isn't even tar "sands". Seems it will be very hard to extract the oil from such

deposits. But that may be what McSame was referring to.

[The Wielding Truth]

6. He doesn't have any idea what he is saying. If he does, he's an

idiot, and *again* he have one of those in the Whitehouse already.

[tjwash]

8. Coal yes...the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal deposits

nt

[spanone]

9. another super senior moment

[kirby]

10. I think Palin said yesterday we have more reserves than the Middle East! n/t

[NoGOPZone]

11. He's counting our fifty first state

Saudi Isralia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_U.S._states#Named_states

[PVnRT]

12. Counting Rocky Mountain shale that is massively expensive to extract, yes

Unfortunately, that stuff is as good as useless.

[maxsolomon]

14. dear mccain:

it's use of fossil fuels that is KILLING THE PLANET.

we don't need to burn more coal & oil, we need to REDUCE USE RADICALLY.

and the fact that china & india won't stop doesn't mean we get to keep feeding at the trough.

[sam sarrha]

15. he could be right... vast deposits have been found off shore in the golf, 350 hundred of years worth

last i heard.. thus the drill drill..."drill". and we have been drill'n an cap'n for decades.

[FarCenter]

17. Oil shale

Not actually oil, and not necessarily shale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale