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    There is an alternative to foreign oil that is located within the United State’s borders, yet not receiving much publicity right now.  This alternative is oil shale, carbonate rock that is rich in organic material and which can be processed to convert it to crude oil.  The richest oil shale formations in the United States are located in the area known as the Green River Formation in  Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.  The United States Department of Energy estimates that there are about 1.8 trillion barrels of oil that are in potentially recoverable deposits,  enough oil to power our nation for centuries.  So why is this not garnering much in the way of national attention right now with  prices near $90 a barrel? 

    The answer resides in the fact that it is currently not even close to economically feasible to pursue this oil.  The production process to convert oil shale to usable crude is far more extensive than that of conventional crude.   Where conventional oil is drilled from the ground, oil shale must be strip minded rather than drilled, a process in which about 40% of the available energy is wasted.  Vast increases in the power supply in these states would be needed to drive production.  Oil shale is also very costly in terms of water, as multiple gallons of water would be needed for every one gallon of oil produced. 

    As if conventional oil isn’t harmful enough for our environment, the production of oil shale is estimated to release four times as many greenhouse gas pollutants than the former.  With the enormous amounts of inputs required to drive production, it’s easy to see why.  In this age of widespread concern over global warming and going green, oil shale is a step backward.  These three states would instantly go from some of the cleanest and most beautiful to one of our nation’s heaviest polluters, not even mentioning the loss and destruction of habit as well.

    These are the basic facts.  Yes, we need to break our foreign oil addiction, but oil shale is currently not the savior it is billed by some to be.  There are far too many economic consequences for it to be a viable problem-solver.  Barring any massive breakthroughs in production technology, oil shale will have a tough, tough time making it big.  Only time will tell how this will play out.  I’m sure we will hearing a lot more about this in the near future.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Addiction, Alternatives, Peak Oil. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.