[jackbenimble]

Oil shale won't happen. Grinding up a large swath of Colorado and Utah and leaving a pile of fine sand to blow around--trying that explaning that one to the Wednesday night Sierra Club meeting.

I believe they are now working with technology to extract the oil from the shale in-situ without digging or grinding. It involves pumping very hot water down the whole and essentially melting it out.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Exxon's first try at squeezing oil out of shale involved a radiation technique, done at Rifle, Colorado. The shale was mined and crushed down to golf ball sized chunks, then zapped and the drippings collected. The tailings became chunks about the size of a baseball, or 1/3 larger.
Try getting that one past the Sierra Club.

[AlBondigas]

It involves pumping very hot water down the...

I believe the method you're referring to is for tar sands, not shale