 |
Transcript for Wrestling with Uncertainty, segment 01 of 16
{{{UGS09 - Wrestling with Uncertainty}}}
{{{Music}}}
In order to plan and implement national goals a country must periodically evaluate the natural resources within its boundaries. Such an appraisal was made of U. S. oil resources in eighteen eighty-five by an executive of Standard Oil.
Why I'll drink every gallon produced west of the Mississippi.
Since nineteen hundred, the Los Angeles basin alone has yielded eight billion barrels of oil. In eighteen ninety-nine Calvin Payne, a Standard Oil production expert, said of the east Texas plains, There's no indication whatever to warrant the expectation of an oil field on the prairies of southeastern Texas. Since the early part of the century, the east Texas oil field has delivered more than five billions barrels of oil.
In nineteen twenty-six the Federal Oil Conservation Board predicted that the United States would run out of oil by nineteen thirty-three. These early statements suggested that we drastically needed a better grip on the potential size of our oil and gas wealth. In recent decades the Department of the Interior has made regular assessments of the nation's petroleum resources. The latest was completed in nineteen ninety-five.
{{{Wrestling with Uncertainty}}}
{{{The National Assessment of Oil and Natural Gas Resources}}}