If I may, i would like to get back to the discussion on the oil shale in western USA. There was a proposal in 1965 that would use nuclear explosions to "crack" the dense shale to make extraction of oil easier.
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servle...ew?id=00001068
This is one experiment that I for one am glad they never tried.
My $0.02
Mike