[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We knew about the Oil Shale...how to get it is the issue....

And of course it has DIRTY OIL.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Previous thread :

GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World’s Proven Reserves'

[balch3]

“We knew about the Oil Shale...how to get it is the issue....”

Exactly this. At the present time, getting at the oil would mean strip mining most of the western half of Wyoming, as well as large sections of Colorado and Utah. I don’t think the public at large will go for that, let alone the populations of those states, no matter how many jobs it brings. And processing the shale to produce oil would take tremendous amounts of water in the already arid west. We make fun of the enviros on FR, but they have a point when it comes to Shale.

Technology will eventually exist that allows us to get to this oil. It doesn’t yet.

[Bernard Marx]

That oil shale deposit is very old news. In fact Jimmy Carter sponsored a big recovery plant there back in the 1970s but the project fizzled for technological reasons. You're right: how to get it is the issue. Worse, 70% of the deposit is on federally-owned land and you can bet it will not be available for oil development.

Oil shale isn't oil sand, as in Canada, or the type of oil that can be recovered by fracking. It requires a heating process called retorting that takes several years for oil in a designated spot to be released from the rock in a form that can be recovered. It's electricity-intensive and the Greenies will have a field day opposing it. Unless we elect an administration that will kill off the EPA or at least get rid of the zealots that run it, shale oil is just a dream.

[Marine_Uncle]

If those behind the curtain wanted America to become totally energy independent and diminish OPEC's power, someone would have a little phone conversation with the Kenyan or a off site visit with him, and lay down the new rule set.
Suddenly one would see a seismic shift in the current administration's attitude about oil and gas. They would suddenly become the prime sponsor for drill baby drill.

[familyop]

Not only is it dirty oil and difficult to harvest, the whole Range is occupied by bipartisan NIMBYs, who control the business and politics of this nation. IMO, go for it, but the elite folks aren't going to allow it. For example, efforts of at least some uranium companies to test drill in some of the most sparsely populated counties in Colorado over the past few years have been stopped. Same goes for at least some natural gas companies.

[Okieshooter]

It is not really crude oil, but a substance that can be converted to oil called kerogen. The cost in both money and energy are excessive as I discussed in this thread yesterday.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2882771/posts

Many confuse it with the shale oil being produced in North Dakota and Montana. They are not even close to being the same.