The politics of oil shale

Fortune ^ | June 6, 2008 | Jon Birger, senior writer

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- You'd think this would be oil shale's moment.

You'd think with gas prices topping $4 and consumers crying uncle, Congress would be moving fast to spur development of a domestic oil resource so vast - 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone - it could eventually rival the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

You'd think politicians would be tripping over themselves to arrange photo-ops with Harold Vinegar (whom I profiled in Fortune last November), the brilliant, Brooklyn-born chief scientist at Royal Dutch Shell whose research cracked the code on how to efficiently and cleanly convert oil shale - a rock-like fossil fuel known to geologists as kerogen - into light crude oil.

You'd think all of this, but you'd be wrong.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

When the American people learn of this, the Democrat Nimrods in the senate will be toast.

[RightWhale]

It’s an old story. The oil shale was known in 1920. Develop it but don’t expect much.

[Fox_Mulder77]

The issue with the Democrats now is they want to cut off any source of carbon. And there are those in the Senate who believe the more expensive you make gasoline, the less driving people do and you force conservation by making driving so expensive people can't afford it.

Yeah, and we ship everything using fuel......... so the Rats want to make everything too expensive to afford. I wonder why? hmmm

[freekitty]

Right. Not all oil shale is good and it is very expensive and hard to get.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

It’s an old story. The oil shale was known in 1920. Develop it but don’t expect much.

Not with oil at $130 a barrel and Shell's recent in situ method of recovery.

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Corn needs about 1,000 barrels of water for the energy equivalent of a barrel of oil. That's a crazy amount of water...

On the other hand, the Department of Energy estimates that oil shale will require three barrels of water for every barrel of oil.

Crazy as it sounds, oil shale is MORE ecologically sensitive than corn-based ethanol.

[RightWhale]

Produce it. It won’t make a dent in the supply problem but it won’t hurt that aspect.

[smoketree]

So how is it that 800 billion barrels won’t make a dent in the supply of oil?
As technology advances it gets cheaper to extract the oil.
The more money we spend in our own country the more we have.
How is that a bad thing?

[denydenydeny]

With gasoline at $4, why this isn't this more of a front-and-center issue for consumers and voters?

Oh please. The MSM knows that this issue devatates the Democrats, so it's confined to gentle little articles in the back pages of Fortune, rather than the front page of the New York Times or the cover of Time, or a feature story on 60 Minutes.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Produce it. It won’t make a dent in the supply problem but it won’t hurt that aspect.

800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone - it could eventually rival the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

That's a pretty big dent.

[Sherman Logan]

If I’ve got my numbers right, we’re importing 5B barrels annually. 800B barrels would make quite a dent for some time.

I lived not far away when they were doing the subsidized oil shale stuff back in the 70s near Rifle. The environmentalists had kittens about the ecological damage and the waste of water. Then oil prices went back down and the whole thing was just dropped.

[RightWhale]

Has nothing to do with how much is in the ground.

[djsherin]

How won’t it make a dent? I’m curious to see your reasoning? Is there something we don’t understand about this issue?

[peeps36]

I bet Salazar is using these tactics to fill his pockets with hush money. Oil shale is just one more thing that shows how inept and stupid our politicians are. How much longer will the American people put up with these idiots before they throw them out of office forever?

[smoketree]

Can you read??????????????????
The article said RECOVERABLE OIL.
Do you need a translation?
Or are you one of those lefties who see only what fits their agenda?
I’m guessing the latter

[RightWhale]

That is correct. Production is in rate not how much is in the rock. The country could use 12 million bpd additional. If you have that you have something.

[AdaGray]

The bright side to this is that it is going to put the environmentalists out of business before they know it.

[RightWhale]

I would say you missed the part about rate of production. Just a guess, of course.

[ScottfromNJ]

Ping

[Eagles6]

The price of gas will be a main driver behind this election. Moving among the unwashed masses you constantly hear them griping about the price of oil and "Bush's oil buddies". They don't have the sense to question the dem shills or the 1 min soundbite from olbermann but, unfortunately, they do vote. These are the same folks who have no problem paying for bottles of water at $18 a gal or starbucks coffee at $70 a gal.

If the Repubs pound this kind of info now until the election they have a good chance.