In August, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a little-noticed report on the budgetary effect of opening federal lands to oil and gas exploration.  The report looked specifically at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf (OSC).  This report was generated at the request of the chairman of the House Budgetary Committee, Representative Paul Ryan.  Ryan, being the clever and fiscally conservative member of the House that he is, was looking for ways to increase revenue without raising taxes. Unfortunately, it seems that the CBO has grossly underestimated the revenue potential generated by opening these two vast untapped areas of natural resources.  The CBO has told the chairman that revenue from just putting the land under lease, without extracting one drop of oil, would yield only $50 billion a year at best.  However, the CBO, in the very same paragraph, admits to a 55% margin of error.  A coin toss...(Read Full Post)