While the American public is struggling to pay $3 a gallon at the pumps, it seems that there is plenty of oil right here in North America that the oil companies have been ignoring for years, with an apparent wink and a nod from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Just recently the Wall Street Journal reported that Chevron was working with "new" steam injection technology in Saudi Arabia to recover millions of gallons of heavy crude oil trapped in rock formations surrounding "dry" wells. In reality however, this technology has been around since 1980 and patented by a Sam Miller in 1990 (U.S. Patent No. 4967840). Basically, super-hot steam is injected under great pressure into a dry well that fragments the rock formations down to 12,000 feet and releases oil in amounts that far exceed what the well produced in its lifespan. Geologists agree that as much as 85% of the Earth's oil reserves remain trapped in these formations, and what has been pumped out today is a small fraction of what remains. A U.S. Department of Energy Report dated 1980 even addressed this potential, but allocated no funding to pursue development of the technology. Why?

Furthermore, last year Miller's son teamed up with Hobson Secondary Oil of New Jersey and proved beyond any doubt in 15 field tests that the technology works flawlessly. In less than an hour after injecting 800 degree steam into dry capped wells, they began to flow at rates up to 1,500 barrels per day--without any negative impact to the environment. Hobson and Miller have offered their technology to the oil companies of the world at no up-front cost to the oil companies and guess what--no takers. Again the question is Why?

Perhaps the answer is the same as the one when we ask why no new refineries have been built in the last 20 years in North America despite record profits in the billions and a glaringly obvious shortage of refining capacity in the world. After all, we were all told by the major oil companies that today's soaring prices are not due to a supply shortage, but rather a refining limitation.

Could it be oil companies are deliberately dragging their feet on the implementation of steam injection technology to keep oil prices and profits artificially high? Such price-manipulation tactics are highly illegal but have proven highly successful in the diamond industry. Further consider that it costs more to refine heavy crude than the light crude we get from the Middle East. The technology Hobson Secondary Oil uses works only on the heavy crude oil found here in North America. So let's look at this logically for a moment... If it costs 70 cents less a barrel to process Saudi Light Crude Oil than heavy crude, but we have to pay 90 cents per barrel in transportation costs to get that oil to the U.S. then hey--there is something wrong with this picture. And no oil executive wants to step up with a plausible explanation. It appears consumers around the world are being taken for a costly ride by the oil giants who want to delay technology "breakthroughs" for as long as possible. HSO's steam trucks convert a dead dry well into a bountiful flowing one in less than a day, yet the oil companies conveniently turn a blind eye. The spin masters of the industry really have a challenge on their hands with this one.

This is not the first time we have seen this abhorrent strategy at play. Brazil has become energy independent through the very cost-efficient ethanol in less than a decade with their "flex-fuel" vehicles that are even made in Detroit. Back in 1992 America had the chance to do the same when an inventor from Austin, Texas named Charles Cantrell first introduced Earthguard bio-fuel to the world. This writer was one of dozens who flew into Texas to watch a demonstration of a race car running laps on nothing but Earthguard fuel, made from sugar beets for less than five cents a gallon. The car was then hooked up to emission test equipment as well as a dyno-meter to prove that emissions were less than half those of conventional fuels and horsepower levels actually increased. It was a proven solution without a single drawback. Sugar beets grow well in the U.S. and within a decade, the U.S. could have completely weaned itself off of foreign petroleum. The rights to Earthguard were sold to an undisclosed buyer and to this day, it was never offered at a single gas pump in the world. Why?

Both federal and state governments depend heavily on fuel taxes that often pay for up to 60% of their growing budgets. Reducing fuel costs reduces tax income and results in painful budget cuts. But are the oil companies the only ones responsible for this clever ruse? Not hardly. Both federal and state governments depend heavily on fuel taxes that often pay for up to 60% of their growing budgets. Reducing fuel costs reduces tax income and results in painful budget cuts. Politicians are not likely to give up their many pork barrel projects just to save citizens a few dollars at the gas pump. We're talking billions of dollars in fuel tax revenues here folks. In fact, the American Petroleum Institute reports that between 30% to 50% of the price we pay at the pumps goes to one government or another in taxes. So while our elected officials put on a great show and ostensibly empathize with consumers as they try to blame everyone else for the rising cost of oil, they really don't want to see the prices drop while they are collecting record-level taxes from the bonanza.

How high does this price-manipulation go? We may never know since the U.S. Supreme Court, in an unprecedented move, ordered that Vice President Cheney's notes taken during meetings with Enron be sealed just as the GAO began an investigation into this very issue. How they can justify such secrecy remains a mystery, but the situation raises quite a few flags of suspicion, especially considering that both Bush administrations had their campaigns well-financed by the oil industry. Is it just coincidence that so many former oil executives like Dick Cheney and Condaleeza Rice found their way into the Bush cabinet? And it's no secret that for more than a decade the Bush family had a major interest in Pennzoil.