b'Putins financial capacity to wage war is as wholly-de- ASAMERICAADJUSTSTOTHENEWPOLIT- of land and offshore territory, to the tune of hundreds pendent on those sales as is Irans. ICALERAthatisjustbeginning,thereformsthatof millions of acres, have never been explored. Incom-President Donald Trump, like he is prone to do, pushedmatter most will be the ones that affect our lives theing Interior Secretary and Energy Czar, Doug Burgum, the envelopemaybe crushed the envelopein 2024mostand energy costs and access to it are at the corerightfully refers to these territories as Americas nation-with his U.S. energy policy, jumping from the goal ofwhat we care about most: peace and prosperity. Foral assets, which explains why a country like Venezue-energy independence to energy dominance. The directthis writer, and Im sure for many of you, I think aboutla has proven all its petroleum reserves in its effort to impact that energy prices have on peace and prosperi- the extra thousands of dollars I spent filling the tank ofmaximize its perceived national wealth.ty could never have been made more real for everydaya full-sized, 12-mile-per-gallon pickup truck at $4.86 aDrill baby, drill, equals a federal energy policy that Americans than under the Biden presidency, and votersgallon in 2022money taken from other needs in mystarts with reforming the adversarial and dysfunctional got it. Beyond energy independence that frees us fromlife, especially providing for the ones I love. When weBureau of Land Management, the Environment Pro-foreign oil from countries that may, or may not, likeapply that effect to the rest of the country and the rest oftectionAgency,andotherthree-letteragenciesthat us at any given time, dominance means that the U.S.the world, its brought into focus how much weve givenhave intentionally made oil and gas development dif-controls the price of crude on world markets, whileup by not developing the resources that can keep thoseficult, over the last four years. Basic reform is the start. providing freedom to European and southeast Asianprices down indefinitely. The second part is opening millions of federally-owned countries from Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and other in- Contrary to popular political rhetoric, the United Statesacres in the western states, especially the 800-pound ternational bad actors. Ultimately, when the bad actorsdoes not possess the worlds largest proven reserves ofgorilla, that being Alaska. The third essential element is turn into good actors, the U.S. would control the mar- crude oil and natural gasthe largest oil reserves aretransportation infrastructure, including pipelines and kets to which they so desire to return. In other cases,Venezuelas300billionbarrelsofextra-heavycrude,LNG facilities, and refininguntil 2022, the last new and just as likely, is internal strife resulting from failingthat is difficult to refine. The largest proven reservesrefinery built in the U.S. opened in Louisiana, in 1977.economics that leads to regime changenothing hasof natural gas are in Russia, but the U.S. is estimated driven more acts of revolution around the world thanto hold the largest unproven supply of both crude oilIt might be shocking to learn that the New England empty cupboards and empty baby bottles. and natural gasand that is because enormous swathsstates are forced to import Russian fuel for heating oil, 52THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'