Free Republic

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) officials said Wednesday that western Colorado has upwards of 40 times more natural gas than previously believed, making it the second largest natural gas producing formation in the U.S. The Mancos Shale formation in Colorado’s Piceance Basin, located in the western section of Colorado, nestles nearly 70 trillion (66.3 trillion) cubic feet of gas. This marks a massive uptick from the 1.6 trillion cubic feet estimated in 2003, research shows. A trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Department, is enough to heat 15 million homes for a year — 66. 3...

The U.S. Geological Survey Thursday increased its estimate of oil shale resources in the Piceance Basin in northwestern Colorado by 50% to more than 1.5 trillion barrels. The Obama administration has halted commercial lease sales of oil shale development, saying more research, particularly on the environmental consequences, is needed before moving ahead with development. The USGS said its latest assessment of the nation's largest oil shale basin, the first since 1989, didn't include a recoverable resource estimate, however, because the resource is currently not economical to recover and there are still a number of environmental concerns about development.