Biden tried every trick to choke off America.
Now Trump's administration is uncovering what Biden desperately tried to bury.
And Trump just got handed one energy weapon that has Democrats scrambling.
Government Scientists Just Exposed Biden's Energy Lies
The U.S. Geological Survey dropped a bombshell on January 14 that blows up every excuse Democrats made for dependence on foreign oil.
Texas's Permian Basin contains 1.6 billion barrels of untapped oil and 28.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas sitting in formations Biden's people claimed weren't worth touching.
The Woodford and Barnett shales stretch up to 20,000 feet below the surface across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
That's enough gas to power the nation for 10 months and enough oil to run the country for 10 weeks at current consumption rates.
Biden spent four years hiding behind a lizard and methane regulations to shut down drilling in the Permian.
His administration rolled out the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard as their excuse to halt operations in 2023.
They sent helicopters over oil fields supposedly hunting for methane super-emitters in 2022.
All theater designed to strangle production while Biden emptied the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and went begging to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Previous USGS assessments in 2007 identified the potential in these formations, but technology to reach them economically didn't exist yet.
By the time horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing made these deposits accessible around 2015, Biden was already planning his war on fossil fuels.
USGS Director Ned Mamula admitted the significance.
"The U.S. economy and our way of life depend on energy, and USGS oil and gas assessments point to resources that industry hasn't discovered yet," Mamula said.
American Innovation Turned "Worthless" Land Into Energy Goldmine
The Permian Basin tells the real story of energy dominance.
The first commercial oil well in the region opened in Mitchell County back in 1921 at just 2,498 feet deep.
Production peaked at 2 million barrels per day in the early 1970s, then crashed 60% by the mid-2000s as the "easy" oil ran out.
The basin was written off as finished.
That's exactly when engineers and geologists got creative.
Mitchell Energy spent decades perfecting the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing that unlocked the Barnett Shale starting in the 1990s.
By 2007, that technology revolutionized what was possible.
Horizontal drilling lets operators steer drill bits sideways through rock formations for thousands of feet instead of just drilling straight down.
Hydraulic fracturing cracks open dense shale to release oil and gas trapped in pores too small for conventional methods to reach.
The two technologies together turned the Permian into the nation's biggest oil field all over again.
Production roared back from 1 million barrels per day in 2010 to 4.8 million by 2019.
The basin now pumps 5.6 million barrels daily and accounts for nearly 40% of all U.S. oil production.
The Woodford and Barnett shales produced only 26 million barrels total since the late 1990s because nobody had the tools to tap them properly.
That's about one day of national consumption spread over 25 years.
Now the same drilling advances that revived the shallower Permian formations can unlock billions more barrels sitting deeper underground.
Toti Larson from the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology explained the challenges.
The reserves sit deeper than traditional drilling zones, which means they're hotter and contain more associated natural gas.
Both factors drive up costs for oil companies deciding where to invest.
The Barnett formation includes more clay, creating additional drilling hazards that require specialized equipment.
Oil prices hovering around $60 per barrel make expensive formations harder to justify.
But when market conditions shift and prices rise, these untapped reserves represent massive opportunity.
"Neither of them are small," Larson said about the Woodford and Barnett potential. "And so if they are successful, then that really does have a strong potential to increase oil and gas production out of the Permian Basin."
Trump's Team Ready to Unleash What Biden Buried
Energy independence isn't just about keeping gas prices low.
It's about making sure hostile nations can't use oil as a weapon against us.
The Permian Basin sat under federal assault for four years while Biden declared war on producers.
His administration blocked drilling permits, strangled pipeline construction, and regulated the industry into submission.
All while Russia invaded Ukraine and OPEC played games with production cuts to jack up prices.
Trump campaigned on unleashing energy, and this USGS report hands him the ammunition.
The technology exists to tap these reserves right now, unlike the windmills and solar panels Democrats pretend will power industrial civilization.
Chris Wright, Trump's nominee for Energy Secretary, knows the oil and gas business inside and out as founder of Liberty Energy.
Wright built his career on the hydraulic fracturing revolution that made us the world's largest oil producer.
He understands that abundant, affordable energy isn't a luxury but the foundation of everything else.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum knows energy production from his time as North Dakota's governor while that state became an oil powerhouse.
Burgum watched technology turn North Dakota's Bakken formation from overlooked geology into one of the most productive oil regions.
The same story playing out in Texas's Permian Basin.
Trump's team isn't going to hide behind fake environmental concerns or pretend we need to depend on Middle Eastern oil.
The reserves are there, the technology works, and companies stand ready to produce.
The Permian Basin holds enough energy to power homes, fuel vehicles, and run factories for months.
All sitting under our soil, ready for workers to extract with proven technology.
Trump's getting ready to prove Democrats wrong all over again.
Sources:
- Andrea Cicero, "USGS releases assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources in Woodford and Barnett shales," U.S. Geological Survey, January 14, 2026.
- Ariana Garcia, "New report says Texas has a major hidden oil resource," Houston Chronicle, January 15, 2026.
- Leslie Eastman, "U.S. Geological Survey Report Shows Massive Untapped Oil, Gas Reserves in Texas," Legal Insurrection, January 21, 2026.
- Texas Railroad Commission, "Permian Basin Information," Texas.gov.
- Dallas Federal Reserve, "Energy in the Eleventh District: Permian Basin," DallasFed.org.
