. . . I’ve heard in a long time came from a NPR report today about oil production in America. If the following prediction is true, it will be an incredible boost to our ecomomy, national security and the American worker in coming decades.
Amy Myers Jaffe of Rice University says in the next decade, new oil in the US, Canada and South America could change the center of gravity of the entire global energy supply. “Some are now saying, in five or 10 years’ time, we’re a major oil-producing region, where our production is going up,” she says. The US, Jaffe says, could have 2 trillion barrels of oil waiting to be drilled. South America could hold another 2 trillion. And Canada? 2.4 trillion. That’s compared to just 1.2 trillion in the Middle East and north Africa. Jaffe says those new oil reserves, combined with growing turmoil in the Middle East, will “absolutely propel more and more investment into the energy resources in the Americas.”
You can listen or read the full article hear: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140784004/new-boom-reshapes-oil-world-rocks-north-dakota
Aaron's Angle 
Thanks for pointing that out, Doug. It did seem too good to be true. With your background in engineering and geology, you would certainly have a much stronger grasp on this.
Maybe new technology needed to extract this oil will spur on innovation and other market forces. We can hope and pray!
What this article neglects to say is that all of this oil discover are in forms and locations that make is very expensive to extract. In North Dakota, for example, this oil is found is oil sands which are far from normal drilling extraction. In South American the new oil discoveries are in very deep ocean levels, again making it very expensive to extract.