The U.S. government and various states ban U.S. oil companies from drilling in thousands upon thousands of square miles off the U.S. Coast. The Obama Adm. maintains a de-facto moratorium on drilling in areas of the Gulf of Mexico holding 20.30 BILLION barrels of oil and 183.7 trillion cubic feet of gas from 1,229 proved fields. Other areas, primarily on the outer Continental Shelf, hold an estimated 115 BILLION barrels of oil and 633 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. By government decree Alaska ’s National Wildlife Refuge, holding an estimated 10.4 BILLION barrels of recoverable oil, is also off limits to oil drilling.

All U.S.-based free-market think-tanks, from CATO to Heritage and from the American Enterprise Institute to the Independence Institute, oppose this drilling ban and proselytize against it. Yet the "free-market" Washington D.C. based Lexington Institute (champion of “free-markets and "limited-government", as dutifully described by all MSM outlets who source them) remains utterly mute on the issue?

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the North Cuba basin (starting at 50 miles from the U.S.) could contain some 4.6 billion barrels of oil. The U.S.-based and “free-market” Lexington Institute that claims interest only in issues that constitute “national priorities" (presumably for the U.S.?) champions offshore oil exploration by U.S. oil companies--but apparently only in the North Cuba Basin.