Because of the old money lobby groups.

Once again, the question of why America does not mine or exploit its own natural resources instead prefers to be not self sufficient in energy is making headlines. Why is this?

Because families (Old American Money with vested interests), such as the "Bush" family do not want to mine their reserves. It is not theirs to decide however. (Read my previous article on public goods).

Oil and mineral wealthy families do not want to mine under their land. They want to people to keep buying from overseas sources and they want political instability in these areas to keep prices high.

That means the value of their "unexploited" holdings also goes up. They are quite happy to have their untapped assets increase in value since they can borrow against it and buy land, property, oil commodities to create more asset bubbles so they can make profits when they sell and keep repeating the process.

These type of people create NO VALUE! They are value destroyers and leaches.
That is why the US will not use its own resources. It has nothing to do with keeping the countryside pretty (Take a look at Michigan and New Jersey), its all about keeping the old money families happy.

Send the capitalists to the moon (The back side) and let them continue their destructive ways there.