Here is some fantastic news out of the Rocky Mountains which has the potential to change our foreign policy significantly in the future (H/T to Instapundit):

The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil-shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released yesterday.
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"We've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East," said James Bartis, RAND senior policy researcher and the report's lead author.
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For years, the industry and the government considered oil shale - a rock that produces petroleum when heated - too expensive to be a feasible source of oil.

However, oil prices, which spiked above $70 a barrel this week, combined with advances in technology could soon make it possible to tap the estimated 500 billion to 1.1 trillion recoverable barrels, the report found.
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Shell Oil is working on a process that would heat the oil shale in place, which could have less effect on the environment.

If this pans out, this could be have the biggest impact on United States foreign policy since the USSR tested it's first atomic bomb. I'm serious. Imagine how our stance with the Middle East would change if we didn't have to care about OPEC? Sure this type of oil is more expensive... now. But if we commit to mining it, then companies will do everything they can to make it cheaper to produce if for no other reason than to increase their profits.

Imagine how things would change if we had 3 times more oil than the entire Middle East. I'm not saying that the tables would exactly flip and we'd have a ton of power over them... but they would no longer have any power over us... which would leave us in the enviable position of dealing with terrorist supporting nations (*cough* Saudi Arabia) like we haven't been able to in the past.

Just imagine.