My friend, and great historian, Howard Hickson has written a short history of an effort by a company to extract oil from shale in our neck of the woods. It's here:
http://www.outbacknevada.us/howh/CatlinShale.htm
We still have acres of the stuff, if its extraction ever becomes economically viable.
Exactly.
Once, if ever, the oil reserves run out, we have a shitload of oil left in shale. And if we can't extract it then we've surely failed.
But I don't believe we've failed. America ROCKS, and we'll extract that oil.
It is absolutely viable.
It's not just a matter of if it's economically viable.. it's a matter of the amount of energy returned, on the energy that's invested in it..
If it takes more energy to make it, than we get from it.. then all the energy it produces simply goes back in to getting more.. and none of the energy makes it to market..