Shale-Oil and Oil-Sands seem like a good idea in on paper if you don't count the cost to the system as a whole.    Why?  Well just as a start, production requires large amounts of energy invested to 'liberate' the components that we're interested in burning.   This basically means oil or gas being burned to produce more oil and gas.   Check out the EROI values here:
www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/npr/Energy_Efficiency_Fact_Sheet.pdf

While neither is as bad as corn based ethanol neither is very good.

Then, throw in the high consumption of water in these processes (the Green River Formation area isn't exactly flush with water) THEN the environmental impact of massive strip mines, waste disposal issues etc. (not to even mention the increase in AGW feedback of burning more hydrocarbons to get more hydrocarbons, oops just did) SO will take more than just thing to sell.

This is pretty "fair and balanced": http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/09/oil_shale_retor.html
(sorry that's a troll).

-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kevin Smeltzer
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 10:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: Energy and Politics

Forget wind farms......
Forget drilling in ANWR........
Forget drilling off the coasts of the U.S........
Forget coal, nuclear, natural gas.........
Forget OPEC......
It is all a political show.

To paraphrase Shakespeare from 'The Tragedy of Macbeth'
Politicians are "... but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."


U.S. and world energy needs are solved.  But you must admit the squealings
of politicians are an interesting sound effect, during election years.  ONE
solution know for years, and rarely reported is 'shale oil'.  Try Google, it
returns 441,000 results on 'shale oil'.  If you are really bored trying
Googling 'oil sand', 672,000 results.  Canada's solution to energy needs.

Check out the RAND report paid for by your tax dollars on web site:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG414.pdf

Highlights from 2005 report:
1.  "The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River
Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates
of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to
1.8 trillion barrels."
2.  "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, 800 billion
barrels of recoverable resources would last for more than 400 years."
- suspect current U.S. demand is above 20 million barrels per day, adjust as
needed.
3.  "unlikely to be profitable unless real crude oil prices are at least $70 to $95
per barrel (2005 dollars)."

NOW, you can understand why U.S. oil companies are not investing
in 'renewable energy sources'.  THEY DO NOT NEED TO!

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