If oil companies need permission to drill because the oil is on public land....

Question

...then doesn't that mean that the "public" land and the oil underneath it belongs to America? Wouldn't it make sense NOT to lease anymore land to the oil companies (so they can hoard it, close off any potential competition, raise prices, sell the oil to China, etc.) and start drilling ourselves? If we did it--even on a small scale--we could have cheaper oil that would force private companies to bring prices back down to a competitive (real) price. This could be an insurance policy to keep the oil companies in check--without nationalizing what didn't already belong to the American public. Your thoughts?

Answer 1

The only problem with "us" drilling is that we would have to spend money to get the equipment to drill. It's easier just to lease the land to oil companies and hope they sell it to us.

What I don't see is why don't we make a deal with them: They have to sell the oil to us, not anybody else, and they have to drill, no hoarding or closing off the land.

Edit: I agree! That makes sense

Answer 2

There are many areas the oil companies can drill right now if they want to, even off shore.  They are drilling offshore.  For some reason ANWAR and certain areas that were made off limits because of the desires of several states and enviromentalists are the hot topic instead of the areas they already have access to.  It is nothing but politics.  

Answer 3

That's kind of like saying the doctor is going to charge me too much to do my brain surgery, so I'll get my congressman to do it instead. Why don't we just let the oil companies get the oil?

Answer 4

I like your idea. And why not build new refineries on our old military installations and supply our military with this oil? That would free up more of the other oil for the market, and the military could sell their surplus to Americans exclusively.