Posted on 06/09/2008 4:48:39 PM PDT by Moseley
If shallow talk could solve America’s energy crisis, politicians in Washington would have all the answers. But Americans are still carrying a crushing burden while little changes. Fortunately, there are many real solutions available for the U.S. economy even if the politicians don’t seem to know it.
America’s dependence on foreign oil is more than a threat to our economy. It has become a threat to America’s national security. American money is being funneled to America’s enemies around the world and is strengthening our enemies while weakening America.
The Mid-West hides the largest untapped oil reserve in the world — estimated at 1 to 2 TRILLION barrels of oil trapped inside shale (rock). This could be more than 8 times Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves of 261 billion barrels. In fact, an article in The Denver Post estimated this to be more than all the other oil reserves on the planet earth.
If only we could discover how to extract this oil from its shale prison economically and with environmental safety, America might have the largest single source of oil in the world. So, why isn’t the U.S. running on home-grown U.S. oil? There are four reasons – all false.
Official Washington decided a long time ago that extracting oil from shale is too expensive. However, oil was trading for as little $19 per barrel at the time. Shale oil becomes competitive when prices stay consistently above $40 per barrel. In recent years, oil has risen from $19 per barrel to over $130 per barrel. It is now high time to unleash this vast resource.
The technology to extract usable oil from shale deposits has been proven. Shale oil currently supplies about 90% of the electricity and 76% of the total energy for Estonia, in Eastern Europe, on the Baltic Sea. An oil shale demonstration plant in Queensland, Australia produced 700,000 barrels of oil between 2001 and 2003.
Early reports dating to the Carter Administration incorrectly claimed that the ‘retorting’ process would require large amounts of energy and water. Repetition of this false information in government studies has discouraged the immediate use of shale oil.
The Unocal commercial demonstration plant project in the Colorado Piceance Creek Basin actually produced more water than it consumed, as former Paraho Corporation head Larry Lukens found from talking with Unocal’s engineers. Colorado oil shale contains, on average, 2-5% by weight of water. That water is liberated from the rock during the ‘retorting’ process. Unocal actually had to construct evaporation ponds to get rid of all the excess water generated.
Similarly, the waste rock, still containing some oil residue, becomes a fuel in its own right. So the process actually produces its own energy. Larry Lukens estimates that a 100,000 barrel a day plant would actually produce enough surplus energy to generate 500 megawatts of electrical power which can be exported to other uses or nearby cities. Once jump-started, the shale oil extraction process actually feeds itself. After all, it is oil we are extracting…
The fourth obstacle is the popcorn myth. Environmental opponents claim that disposing of the left-over gravel will be a problem. However, rock does not expand. Instead, when rock is ground into smaller sizes, air pockets are introduced. The solution is to compact the gravel debris back into place with heavy machinery. The gravel is also good for building roads.
It is time to take the lessons from these demonstration projects and build much-more efficient retorting plants to harness America’s vast shale oil reserves now that oil is trading at $120 per barrel and up. This should be given a crash-program status as the highest priority, like landing a man on the moon and the Manhattan Project. The only real problem is the lack of political will to truly achieve energy independence.
Progress on shale oil could be stimulated by (a) private business, (b) a consortium of State governments for States containing shale oil deposits, (c) Congress, or (d) the President through leadership of the bully pulpit and through action in the Executive Federal Departments. Any Presidential or Congressional candidate could also call attention to this opportunity by issuing a John F. Kennedy style challenge to the nation.
They are in the Baltic Sea region. Most of Estonia's oil production comes from oil shale.
Baltic Sea Regional Factsheet, Oil
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Baltic/Oil.html
Non of the permits allow a commercial sized operation. It is only for pilot plant operations and the time for comment on the Environmental Impact Statement was extended, delaying the ability to get started.
http://ostseis.anl.gov/news/index.cfm
You’re implying these carbon trading schemes would be a good trade off in return for getting shale oil??? Good grief. You need to understand the disastrous effect on the economy if that is ever put into law. I see a lot of freepers lately caving to nutty ideas like this. Hope you get your head back on straight.
So after voting against it in Congress, he is going to talk about now that the election is getting close?
Nope. Just saying the two issues aren't necessarily connected.
He voted against ANWR. He has not, to my knowledge, as yet taken a position on shale oil.
It will be more difficult to produce Shale Oil with his proposed cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
How much more difficult?
Shale oil production is energy intensive. It still produces more output than input, but even more fuel is burned up to get the production.
McCain election web site says he not only wants to freeze greenhouse gas release but reduce it significantly.
Well, it seems unlikely to me that a cap-and-trade scheme would ever get passed, even with Obama and a Democratic Congress or McCain and a Rat Congress. My hunch is that blue dogs and Republicans would at the very least filabuster it.
On the other hand, opening up the shale seems political feasible. It would have to be accompanied by a well-funded grass-roots campaign, and strong support by a sitting president would help too, but it seems to me that lower oil prices are an easy sell in this political environment.
We'll see. Maybe I'm too optimistic.
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