[Ursus arctos horribilis]

With the new (forget the old from a few decades ago) proven technology, oil shale is in the ascendancy as a viable source of energy.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A guy from Exxon told me about their first try at squeezing oil from shale at Rifle, Colorado. They blasted the shale and crushed it to 2 inch top size, then radiated the chunks to get the oil to flow. The 2 inch golf balls swelled by 30 percent in the process. Add this to the normal 25 percent swell factor for heaped yards vs. bank yards and you have a major spoil problem, not to mention an environmental disaster to deal with.