Archive Report
Archive Report
Questioned Adequacy of Domestic Oil Reserves
Petroleum as the Key to World Leadership
Repeated warnings have come from governmental and other sources during recent months that American petroleum reserves are approaching exhaustion, perhaps within a span of 15 to 20 years. Access to adequate oil supplies, it has been pointed out, is basic to a healthy peacetime economy, imperative in time of war, and essential to maintenance of a position of world leadership for the United States. Bernard M. Baruch pointed, in an interview Feb. 21, to the heavy drain upon American petroleum resources in World War II and asserted that “after the war the United States will face a struggle to remain the first power in the world.” Secretary of the Interior Ickes stated in ...