[thackney]

It takes alot of water to steam the rock to free the oil trapped there.

That is not the only method.

Seebach: Shell's ingenious approach to oil shale is pretty slick
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_4051709,00.html

RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY MAY UNLOCK ENORMOUS OIL SHALE RESERVE
http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/feature/oil_shale06/

[ninonitti]

Great links

Where can I buy me one of them oil shale licenses?

So if I read this right most of this Oil Shale/Sand is on BLM land is which owned by this collective enterprise called the United States of America.

So the licenses go out to contractors (Big Oil-Small Oil- Mom and Pop Oil)who produce this oil and then the resulting royalty shows up every year as a check made out to John Q Public - like in Alaska now?

Or does the Congress get together and figure out how to steer this "taxpayer profit windfall" into their more deserving projects?