Bush is calling for the development of oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. It would make the "use up the little bit we have left" argument moot as this is probably one of the biggest known reserves on the planet. Not only would it give us energy independence but it would help bring back and secure dollar hegemony by the fact that we could become one of, if the THE world's biggest oil exporter, and of course we'd only take dollars(but I guess we'd still have to try to keep the value of the dollar down a bit if we were going to be such a huge exporter).
Actually you best look into the actual facts, at this point we can only get to a VERY small portion of it. Just because there is a lot there, if we can not get to it doesn't equate to it being there for us to use. Shale is also much more expensive to extract than crude oil, reason most do not drill for it when crude prices are manageable.
I also went to Berkeley, so enjoy yourself. Need a private room, and a few tissues? I do care about the preservation of rare ecosystems, and beyond, I am not a fan of this President's reckless policies, across the board. We need to think about ways to reduce oil dependence, not find more ways to slake our salacious thirst.
Anyone else ever think that our lives will become like the 'Mad Max' movies one day because of this oil mess?
The extraction technology has improved but the oil companies haven't been allowed to develop with it. We could sit back forever and say "well we just can't get to it so let's vote the bill down that would let us" even though the head engineers at the oil companies say we can get to it. Crude prices are not now, and may never be manageable again. The higher the price of crude the less important the extra cost to extract oil shale. Like I said, it was believed to be economically viable at $40/barrel of crude. That was 100 dollars ago.
I would revisit the idea of drilling where it is currently prohibited. I'm not saying I would do it....but I would revisit the idea in large public debate. The debates might get stupid and ideological but I'd revisit the ideas. And while I was doing that I'd be looking at all the energy alternatives in every way. Put nuclear back on the table, look at wind and all alternatives. Get to better understand the pro's and cons of biofuels. Start addressing all this with data and (hopefully) quality discussion and debate. As time goes on, a continuing growth in energy (specifically oil) demand is going to grow from China and India. That has recently (over the last few years) and will continue to change the demand/supply curve. Vietnam is on the development cusp and if it is successful in drawing heavy investment dollars could become a fast growing nation with large demand for oil. America needs to reevaluate all of it...and make decisions going forward.
Report please. Even the most recent report by the oil companies themselves only show us being able to get to a small fraction from what I have read. Source please. I'm all for creating technology to get to the shale, make it economically viable, other options such as the bug crude I have previously linked to. Those are all items however from my knowledge are not at this time a reality. Until they are a reality I personally find it disgusting and simply idiotic to tap the little oil we have, which in all reality will not have any immediate impact to current prices. It has the very real possibility of making us weaker in the long term for the prospect of 'hopefully' bringing oil down in the short term.
Yes, which does not equate to the close minded views of 'lets drill for more oil, ghee that's a solution'
Your self-portrait better helps me to understand why your thinking appears to be so shallow. Thanks - it does help with the compassion thing. You don't give a damn about the environment, if your posts and behavior here are any indication. We are an incredibly wasteful people. Rather than saying, "hell witit, let's just fuck up another ecosystem, that outta feed my hog," we need to face the fact - the decisions one of us makes today affects all of us tomorrow. I have seen the result of the 1969 Santa Barbara spill first hand. I have seen the incredible stupidity of short-sighted thinking, and no, I cannot support it.
"US oil shale resources possess the same characteristics of accessibility, richness, production assurance, and high product quality as Alberta tar sand resources." http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/publications/Pubs-NPR/40010-373.pdf "Royal Dutch Shell has announced that its in situ extraction technology in Colorado could become competitive at prices over $30 per barrel ($190/m3), while other technologies at full-scale production assert profitability at oil prices even lower than $20 per barrel ($130/m3).[56][57][58][43] To increase the efficiency of oil shale retorting, several co-pyrolysis processes have been proposed and tested." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale I'll look for more later if you want, I gotta go out for a bit right now. I read an article a few weeks ago that had an interview with a Shell engineer/geologist, maybe I'll see if I can find it later.
I've read those before but that is 'at best' and they even go on to say that prices could realistically be much higher. Fact still comes down to it's a huge 'if' unknown at this moment. I'd be glad to look at any info The articles I read as of late though did not paint a very good picture of the current state of the shale. Yes there is a lot of it, but much of it we can not get, plus the prices to get it could be much higher than we would hope for. --- I would support developing the technology for retrieving as much shale oil as possible, lowest prices as possible over that of using the crude we currently have, as until the technology is there and proven it simply is not a reality..
I hope not, farming pigs isn't that fun. Besides, the alternatives are there, we just are not exploring them to their fullest yet. Another 10 years and gasoline cars will be old news.
The US can use German WW2 technology to convert coal to both gasoline and jet fuel. The US is #1 in the world in extractable coal resource. http://www.totse.com/en/fringe/fringe_science/coal2gas.html US coal reserves are capable of meeting domestic demand for more than 250 years at current rates of consumption. World Coal Reserves United States 273 billion tons Russia 173 billion tons China 126 billion tons India 93 billion tons Australia 90 billion tons http://www.clean-energy.us/facts/coal.htm