[M. Espinola]

Very interesting news. What is Congress waiting for? Drill!

[Skylab]

Hatch noted that Canada recognized the potential of the large tar sands deposits in the province of Alberta and developed a government policy to go promote their development -- increasing its oil reserves by more than a factor of 10.

M. Espinola
Very interesting news. What is Congress waiting for? Drill!

Wait a minute. I thought government was evil. I thought the government was your enemy. I thought it was going to take your children away from you to indoctrinate them in the ways of socialism to usher in the reign of the Antichrist. What is this now about calling the Government to intervene in the economy. This is scandalous! We are entering the end times! Yaaaaaaaaaahhhh!

[Wonder Warthog]

"Very interesting news. What is Congress waiting for? Drill!"

Unfortunately, it takes more than drilling. Extracting oil from oil shale is more like strip mining than drilling, and actually getting the oil "out" of the rock requires a completely different (and as yet un-developed) processing infrastructure than for either coal or oil.

You will know that "peak oil" theory is real when the stock of companies starting up to extract oil shale or Canadian tar sands or focussing on tertiary oil recovery start to to through the roof. Until then, the "high" price of oil is caused by global political factors and NOT a lack of oil.

All that said, I think the Feds (i.e. Department of Energy") should begin R&D funding on ways and means to make it happen.

[airborne]

What is Congress waiting for?

Why, approval from the tree-huggers, of course.