This short paper comes in three parts: 

Part one is the exact text copied from a USGS paper released on 4/10/2008  at 2:25:36 PM.  Exactly what took 14 months for this information to reach middle America (me) is perplexing. 

Part two is Obama and the environmentalists' plan for the transportation of our country in the future.  His energy, environmental, and economic bills are already being prepared for signature as we speak.  Hold on as we may be taking our last few breaths as freedom loving Americans!

Part three is a reasoned approach to keeping Americans free and happy. 

Part One:

Reston, VA - North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

Technically recoverable oil resources are those producible using currently available technology and industry practices. USGS is the only provider of publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

New geologic models applied to the Bakken Formation, advances in drilling and production technologies, and recent oil discoveries have resulted in these substantially larger technically recoverable oil volumes. About 105 million barrels of oil were produced from the Bakken Formation by the end of 2007.

The USGS Bakken study was undertaken as part of a nationwide project assessing domestic petroleum basins using standardized methodology and protocol as required by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.

The Bakken Formation estimate is larger than all other current USGS oil assessments of the lower 48 states and is the largest "continuous" oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS. A "continuous" oil accumulation means that the oil resource is dispersed throughout a geologic formation rather than existing as discrete, localized occurrences. The next largest "continuous" oil accumulation in the U.S. is in the Austin Chalk of Texas and Louisiana, with an undiscovered estimate of 1.0 billions of barrels of technically recoverable oil.

"It is clear that the Bakken formation contains a significant amount of oil - the question is how much of that oil is recoverable using today's technology?" said Senator Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota. "To get an answer to this important question, I requested that the U.S. Geological Survey complete this study, which will provide an up-to-date estimate on the amount of technically recoverable oil resources in the Bakken Shale formation."

The USGS estimate of 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil has a mean value of 3.65 billion barrels. Scientists conducted detailed studies in stratigraphy and structural geology and the modeling of petroleum geochemistry. They also combined their findings with historical exploration and production analyses to determine the undiscovered, technically recoverable oil estimates.

USGS worked with the North Dakota Geological Survey, a number of petroleum industry companies and independents, universities and other experts to develop a geological understanding of the Bakken Formation. These groups provided critical information and feedback on geological and engineering concepts important to building the geologic and production models used in the assessment.

Five continuous assessment units (AU) were identified and assessed in the Bakken Formation of North Dakota and Montana - the Elm Coulee-Billings Nose AU, the Central Basin-Poplar Dome AU, the Nesson-Little Knife Structural AU, the Eastern Expulsion Threshold AU, and the Northwest Expulsion Threshold AU.

At the time of the assessment, a limited number of wells have produced oil from three of the assessments units in Central Basin-Poplar Dome, Eastern Expulsion Threshold, and Northwest Expulsion Threshold.
The Elm Coulee oil field in Montana, discovered in 2000, has produced about 65 million barrels of the 105 million barrels of oil recovered from the Bakken Formation.

Part Two: 

Please excuse the oil-field language above.  If environmentalists and Obama were really interested in independence of foreign oil, they would consider domestic oil.  Unfortunately environmentalists believe that oil is not the solution, but the problem, and they have been dragging their feet on domestic oil production for years.  Obama, being a Harvard lawyer, knows no better.  Their comprehensive and myopic plan is to drive the cost of energy, through the clean air act, cap and trade, and the EPA, so high that we will be forced to wait for alternate sources, few of which are available as needed for today's economy. 

Obama and the environmentalists' alternative energy plan is pictured below in two phases.  Phase one we will be forced to accept because of European style gas prices, and Phase two will follow naturally as soon as the tax plan known as cap and trade becomes fully operational. 

Enjoy Obama and the Environmentalists' transportation future.

Obama's Phase One Vehicle Gasoline powered three-wheel two passenger, two teleprompter, Obama-mobile. Powered by vegetable oil, A true flex-fuel vehicle with dual control foot pedals that let you pedal home when you run out of vegetable oil.

Two Door Model Luxury Four Door Model

Phase Two Obama-Flintstone Mobile (When vegetable oil is declared a pollutant by the EPA)   EPA Certified Features: No Engine No transmission No floor No signal lights Two candle-powered headlights Four Passenger Propulsion Up to eight actual footprints The only carbon footprint is that exhaled by human operators. Exhaling has not yet been outlawed by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act.