Let's sell federal lands to the oil companies

Many of America's numerous threats have been thrust upon us by the ever-expanding federal government. Two interrelated issues confront the taxpayers: The insolvency of the federal government and its seemingly never-ending barriers against the production and distribution of affordable energy.

The assertion that the United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population but consumes 26 percent of its energy fails to mention that the U.S. produces 26 percent of the world's industrial output. Another contrived assault against expanded domestic oil production is that the U.S. has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. This number is questionable, especially since the federal government either has made it illegal to explore for oil in order to expand our reserves or effectively has negated this prospect through over-regulation and targeted tax policies.

Consider the Green River Formation — containing the largest deposits of oil shale in the world — which covers parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. These deposits reportedly contain approximately 1 trillion barrels of recoverable oil. If they met one-quarter of the current U.S. demand for petroleum products, they would last for more than 400 years. And more than 70 percent of these oil shale deposits are under federal-government-owned and -managed lands, which control access to the best sections of the formation.

Significantly, the petroleum from the Green River Formation, if released, would more than offset the current imports from the Persian Gulf countries of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — increasingly unreliable sources that in the future may be expected to cater to the surging energy demands of China and other industrializing countries.

The highest percentage of the federal government's ownership of vast acreages is in the energy-rich Western states. For example, federal ownership as a share of the total lands in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado ranges from 36 percent to 57 percent. Even worse, Nevada has 84 percent of its land usurped by the federal government. In contrast, less than 1 percent of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Iowa and New York are owned by the federal government.

Federal ownership of vast, unproductive acreage contributes to our insolvency as well as offers a partial remedy to our government indebtedness and ability for America to gain a measure of energy self sufficiency. Nearly 30 percent (about 650 million acres) of our national land mass of 2.3 billion acres is in federal lands. Another 8.6 percent is owned by local and state governments. Additionally, there is another 1.76 billion acres of taxpayer-owned lands offshore available for energy production.

Suppose, for instance, that 10 percent of the 650 million acres — 65 million acres — would be offered for sale only to domestic energy companies. Of course, each parcel sold would need to be priced at its respective market value and evaluated so as to weigh its comparative merits for producing energy versus being preserved for environmental or scenic value. For the sake of illustration, if these tracts were sold for an average of $1,500 per acre, the resulting revenue to repay our hemorrhaging national debt would be in the range of $97.5 trillion.

This strategy is altogether reasonable. Liquidation of assets occurs regularly in the private sector. In fact, it generally is demanded by creditors when borrowers have defaulted. In the case of the federal government, there is an increasing queue of creditors. Taxpayers effectively are creditors who are beginning to demand that government's unchecked spending and over-regulation of energy exploration and production be brought under control.

Not surprisingly, previous efforts have been made to sell off some federally owned lands. Unsuccessful legislative proposals to dispose of public lands were made in 1995 and 2005. It becomes more difficult when the federal government attempts to add even more land to its holdings. For example, in July 2010, the Consolidated Land, Energy and Aquatic Resources Act passed the House. According to Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert, this failed legislation contained plans for the federal government to spend $900 million a year for 30 years to purchase private land for the government.

It is worth noting that the federal government cannot maintain its present holdings of public land. For instance, the National Park Service estimates that it needs nearly $10 billion just to meet its backlog of maintenance and repair projects.

It is imperative that Congress act this year to make available public lands without overwhelming regulations to U.S. energy businesses. Of course, the energy-generating potential of selected lands would exceed the environmental and scenic value of such lands. Prompt action is required since the nation's solvency and perhaps its sovereignty have never before been in such dire peril.