Latham perpetuating oil reserve hoax

Fourth District Congressman Tom Latham is guilty of perpetuating a myth/hoax that has been circulating on the Internet in various forms for several months. As the Oct. 11 guest on IPTV's “Iowa Press” this past weekend, he stated that “we have three times the oil reserves as the entire Middle East! These reserves are located in the Dakotas, Montana and the Rocky Mountains but we are not allowed to drill for it”! He said our government could be receiving a wealth of royalties which would solve all kinds of problems!

This outlandish claim of huge oil reserves comes as an e-mail and raves about all the oil located in that area - more than 2 trillion barrels that will fully fuel the American economy for centuries! The reader is given the U.S. Geological Survey Web site as proof.

Check it out at www.usgs.gov./newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911 People forwarding this garbage apparently don't check out the Web site. I can forgive them but not a U.S. congressman.

Facts according to the USGS Web site: There are 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil in North Dakota and Montana's Bakken formation. The U.S. presently consumes 20.8 million barrels per day. If we were to reap the entire 4.3 billion barrels, it would be enough to supply us for 206.7 days!

What was/is Latham thinking?

Max Grover

Rowley