Shale Oil To Be Developed, But Not Here

Powerline reports that even though the US has more oil in shale than anywhere in the world, the Democrats have refused to allow us to develop it.

We've written about the fact that the United States has by far the largest known oil shale deposits in the world. In fact our Rocky Mountain oil shale is believed to amount to as much as two trillion barrels, far more than the entire world has consumed since oil was discovered in Pennsylvania in the 19th century.
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Unfortunately, the Democrats have been able to place these vast reserves off-limits. Now, one country has announced plans to develop its shale oil resources, but it isn't the United States, it's Jordan:

And here's a very important point when Obama quotes statistics: be very careful of definitions:

A commenter at the Forum points out that I used the term "reserves" incorrectly. Oil in the ground is not counted toward "reserves" unless it is 1) evaluated as profitably recoverable under current economic conditions, and 2) accessible under current regulatory schemes. Our oil shale is "oil in the ground," since the Democrats have blocked it from development. This is a key point: you often hear liberals say that the United States only has 3% of the world's petroleum reserves, therefore it is hopeless to try to develop our own resources. That is, obviously, a non sequitur at best, but it is doubly deceptive given that the only reason our "reserves" are so low is that the Democrats have placed the vast majority of our oil resources off limits through regulation and legislation.

In other words, when the government prevents development of oil in the ground, it eliminates oil reserves as if they did not exist.