How many lifetimes of energy do you wish to have available? 1, 10 100?
During my now 43 years in industry, I have seen the variances of 'Assessments' of resources, seen new technology that has been developed and utilized, and am convinced we ain't seen nothing yet. I recall when I was first out of school in the '70s that we were expected to run out of oil in 10 years.
It did not happen, and the production since that time has greatly exceeded the reserves supposed to exist then, and we have higher production and higher reserves than ever at present.
I worked unconventionals for the past 10 years and seen almost all the resource potential basins in North America.
We have a staggering amount of hydrocarbons that are available for development. This holds true particularly for natural gas. True, price dictates a lot, but that will come back around and the hydrocarbons will in fact be developed and produced.
The Bakken play didn't really boom in North Dakota until the USGS finally came out with yet another upgraded (and significantly increased) estimation of oil in place, in about 2006. By that time, there had been the quiet boom in Richland County, MT, in the Elm Coulee field, going since 2000. Wells there were estimated to have a recoverable 3-5% of oil in place, but when that production passed 10% of estimated oil in place (and kept going), someone had to redo their numbers, and the numbers are constantly being revised upward. That is just one of the unconventional resources which are all over the US.
This doesn't even factor in the offshore potential in the Eastern seaboard of the US, the Western Continental Margin, and the Gulf of Mexico, which is still full of surprises--and tremendous numbers of natural oil seeps which indicate reservoirs waiting to be tapped.
Traditionally, two things have been in the way of development: economics and technology, but now we can add the third of rabid environmental politics, primarily a device not to protect anything but the projection of power of a few who would control entire nations using some critter as an excuse.
The oil doesn't care about politics, it doesn't give a rat's ass about snail darters--and entombed hundreds of animals in the tar pits at La Brea. It doesn't care how much you are willing to spend for it, or how or even whether it is extracted. It just is, and there is a lot of it. The only question is one of having the incentive to do so. In some places that is determined by politics, here--and to some extent there too--by economics.
We are perhaps still the most capable nation on the planet. We have the ability, the innovation, the intelligence to do almost anything we want. But we will not do it if we don't have the Will to do so. If we are content to be enslaved by people pushing an agenda out of self-importance, do-gooderism, or the desire to hobble this nation with the chains of unnecessary regulation, then we will wear those chains, we will be far less than we could be, and we will eventually be conquered from within and without for our lack of desire to prevail.