Bill to Increase Domestic Oil and Natural Gas Production; Coal-Derived Fuel Mandate

www.greencarcongress.com ^ | 04 May 2008 | Staff

[Sgt_Schultze]

...and lift the one-year moratorium on developing oil shale in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.

This is such and important part of being energy independent. The area about which Domeneci is referring is called the Green River Formation and is estimated to have "..from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, the estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation would last for more than 400 years.

[A. Morgan]

BUMP!

[Piquaboy]

The problem is that many of them are gutless.

[ripley]

the nasty republicans are at it again. they want to soil our earth by drilling for oil. they want to further greed, dirtiness, foul air, foul interaction between people and crass materialism.

they should be ashamed of themselves.

/sarcasm off/

[bert]

My take is that there enough Rats who want to pass the legislation to do it. The outrage over the price of fuel trumps the vociferous but minority of envirowackos.

Something good will pass before the end of July. Both houses.

[elpadre]

Rather than moan about the Dems expected reaction to the bill, why not all on FR get behind it and pressure Congress as we did with the no-amnesty campaign. Can we do it again???

[Red Badger]

My thoughts exactly!.........

[SAJ]

Coal liquefaction and gasification should be nicely profitable at about mid-50s/bbl, depending on how one amortises the physical plant. Might have to add a couple of dollars to that figure for inflation and regulatory mopery and dopery.

[Red Badger]

Thanks for the link!.........

[Red Badger]

We should have a “Manhattan Project” to build refineries and “Coal-to-liquid” plants here just for US!..............

[johnny7]

The Senate passed an energy bill in 1995 that gave the green light for drilling in ANWR... Clinton vetoed it.

[avacado]

" The mean-case estimate is that there are 10.4 billion technically recoverable barrels of oil in ANWR,..."

Multiply that by 4 or 5 and that is how much recoverable oil is actually there. The 10 billion figure was from seismic surveys in the 1980s. Seismic technology has advanced much since then and the estimates back then were based of poor technology and processing algorithms.

I work with a geophysicist who worked on the ANWR seismic survey back in the 1980s and he claims 4 to 5 times the amount of recoverable oil than what they first estimated.

If nothing else, let's get a good seismic survey done on the ANWR today.

[Maverick68]

The next time a Rat tells the American public that it will take at least 10 years before we see any refined petro from new drilling, they need to be ask if they care about "the children" since this will benefit them greatly.
If we had ignored the "10 year" strawman argument the first time we heard it 15 years ago, things might be different...

[avacado]

"Maybe this would have helped back in 2001 to 2007 when you know, the GOP could actually pass such legislation. Why even bother introducing it now when you know it has no chance of passing?"

One possible short term benefit is that it could drive the futures market down for a time being. Just a thought.

[Red Badger]

That should be brought out in the campaign........

[SAJ]

Yep. The problem with kerogen production from shale is not producing it; there are already a couple of proven technologies.

The problem -- problemS, actually -- are two: getting the goobermint's fat arse out of the way, and a potential collapse in the price of crude if/when shale-based production gets into full swing.

There almost certainly will have to be a compensating tariff on foreign crude, once shale-based production is under way, to prevent the price of crude from falling to a point where the producers' huge investment(s) go sour. Probably a sliding scale, something like that, with a trigger around $60-62 and a base somewhere around $45-48/bbl-equivalent.

[SAJ]

Just the announcement that the US **intends** to **begin** kerogen production from shale in (presumably) the near future will knock $15 off the crude price in 2 weeks' time -- at the back end of the strip, but not any nearby contracts (the price effect on the nearby contracts will be minimal, at least among pros). Never mind that actual production from shale has a probable 3-5 years' startup/lag time.

That's why they're called futures mkts, after all.

[airborne]

This will be fought tooth and nail by the Rats and their envio-buddies.

During an election year, with gas prices hovering at $4 a gallon

Let the Dems fight against it!

[thackney]

[avacado]

"...at the back end of the strip, "

What does that mean?