Washington, DC – House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA) praised the Bush Administration today for continuing Pombo’s work to end America’s foreign energy habit by using alternative oil recovery techniques to produce an additional 89 billion barrels of U.S. oil and by encouraging production of huge amounts of natural gas in gas hydrates.

Pombo included directions in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to encourage domestic oil production using enhanced carbon dioxide recovery techniques, which injects the gas into mature fields to recover large amounts of oil that would otherwise remain unreachable.  The Chairman also included directions to encourage production of natural gas hydrates, deposits that hold far greater supplies of natural gas than exist in conventional U.S. resources.

“I am pleased President Bush and his Administration are following through on my plans to end our foreign energy reliance by using American talent, technology and resources to increase American energy supplies and lower prices for families and businesses,” said Pombo.  “Taking a collective look at the amount of oil and natural gas we could produce from these unconventional sources, the energy locked in our deep ocean waters and the trillions of barrels of oil in our oil shale reserves, I know these resources can help North America become ene rgy independent by 2025. We must tap American ingenuity to make the unconventional energy of today the conventional energy of tomorrow.”

This week the Department of Interior published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on a program to encourage enhanced oil recovery.  The Department of Energy recently released reports indicating the technique could produce 89 billion new barrels of technically recoverable U.S. oil, with the potential to add 430 billion barrels as technology improves.  This would put America at the front of world oil production, ahead of Iraq and possibly ahead of Saudi Arabia.

The carbon dioxide recovery method also presents environmental benefits.  By taking carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere and putting it into the ground, the potential to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the air could provide even more incentive for companies to pursue this technique.

“This method of recovery is a win-win situation,” Pombo continued. “It shows we can help the environment and still meet the energy demand that keeps the American economy on top.”

Separately, the Department of Interior also requested comment on a new program to encourage natural gas hydrate production.  The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the nation’s natural gas hydrate resource could total as much as 200,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Congressman Richard W. Pombo represents California's Eleventh Congressional District.  Congressman Pombo is Chairman of the House Resources Committee and serves on the House Agriculture Committee.