The uncertain situation in the Middle East could send world oil prices to $200 or $300 a barrel even as the Obama Administration fails to promote domestic energy development, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) warned today.

Gov. Perry spoke to bloggers at a briefing in Washington, D.C., this morning. (Present were Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, Jen Rubin of The Washington Post, and your Shopfloor.org correspondent.) The governor, who is chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is in town for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.

In light of oil crossing the $100 a barrel price this week, we asked about the Obama Administration’s policies and attitudes toward development of domestic energy. The governor responded:

Gov. Rick Perry

Putting America’s future at jeopardy by basically hand-cuffing ourselves because of our lack of focus on domestic energy policy I think is devastating to the future.You said hundred-plus-dollar-a-barrel oil. Yes. That’s today. It certainly could go to $200 or even $300 a barrel if the situations in the Middle East – Libya, into Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen all of those countries – if we’re to see continued deterioration of peaceful conducting of business in the drilling and transportation of oil….

I don’t think it’s out of the reach of possibility to see oil even twice or three times what it is today –- devastating to the world economy.

America really needs to get on, and this Administration needs to respect that we can drill safely, cleanly, and get America independent.

Gov. Perry made those comments after citing the technological advances that have made U.S. oil and gas resources far more attainable than in the past. He named examples: the Bakken Formation in the Dakotas and Montana, the Barnett Shale natural gas formation in Texas, Marcellus Shale, and the Eagle Ford shale formation in South Texas.

I share those with you to say the United States has oil and gas reserves that can take us years and years and years into the future without being held hostage by these countries that in many cases don’t care for us all at all, at all. This Administration, with that knowledge, is making decisions that are limiting our ability to discover and produce more of those energy resources in the United States.

That is, on its face, a clear indictment of this Administration and previous Congresses, I will suggest as well, that have not looked to the future.

Let me wrap by saying, his clear decision and direction to the Interior Department to make it difficult, if not impossible to get offshore drilling permits, again. Should they have focused on that spill? Should they have found out what happened? Should they have put in place the safety side of things so it never happens again? Absolutely. But should we say, oh, we’re not going to go ultra-deep discovery of oil in the Gulf? Absolutely not.

We’ve put the full clip of our question and Gov. Perry’s response here.