OT: Oil Shale

[RN7]

Has anyone noticed the coming importance of oil shale in the worlds energy supply?

Estimates set the total world resources of oil shale at potentially over 5 trillion barrels of shale oil. Although only part of it is technically or economically recoverable at the moment, conservative estimates of recoverable oil in place well in excess of 1 trillion barrels. For comparison the world's proven conventional oil reserves are estimated to be 1.317 trillion barrels.

The largest oil shale reserves in the world are in America with an estimated 1.5–2.6 trillion barrels, with Colorado and the mountain states of Utah and Wyoming having by far the largest reserves, but there are large deposits across America. Basically America now has viable oil shale reserves equivalent to five times that of the conventional oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, and possibly a lot more than that.

Last year during the presidential campaign Mitt Romney (who I don't like but did like what he was saying about this) discussed the potential of harnessing it for America's future. Although there are environmental issues its potential is enormous, and when America brings it on-line it will change the course of 21st Century history. Over the next 20 years it could create tens of millions of jobs in extraction, refining, infrastructure, shipping and all types of services. The worlds petro-chemical industry will also gravitate towards America. Oil tankers will be sailing out of New York, the Gulf and California to ports all across Europe, the Far East and beyond. OPEC will collapse and the Arab oil states and the Middle East will become irrelevant as the price of oil plummets. The tax dollars it could generate are mind boggling, and with this resource at America's disposal you can forget about China or anyone else ever overtaking America.

[Cdnwolf]

The biggest problem is that to extract the oil you need a technique called fracking which creates a whole new sort of problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

[raketenjagdpanzer]

I'm all for shale oil production in the US. Enough already with the mid-east.

Also (and I realize this is beyond the bounds of a T2k setting, please bear with me): our vehicles - air and land - are becoming more and more and more fuel efficient. Even if we ratchet up "regular" oil production in the US by 2020 we'll be able to give Saudi Arabia the middle finger it so richly deserves.

[RN7]

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

The biggest problem is that to extract the oil you need a technique called fracking which creates a whole new sort of problems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing

There is no doubt its a complicated process, and there will be a lot of opposition from environmentalists, but its now viable and a majority of the worlds new oil and gas wells are now being hydraulically fractured. Conventional oil drilling is neither clean or easy either, offshore drilling is expensive and very complicated, and nuclear power and green energy also has its drawbacks and limitations.

But the economics of it are to large to ignore. Complete independence in energy supply, in fact America would become the worlds largest exporter by a country mile and it could change world trade patterns. It could also change the foreign policy of America and others. The Arabs must be worried as there will no longer be a need to suck up to their distasteful regimes in the Middle East, and spend a fortune basing military forces there as no one will need their oil anymore. Its a massive boost to America's economic future.

[kalos72]

Oil independence at what cost? The fact we are not spending more money on researching the NEXT new technology is troubling.

I do not want another 50 years on oil...

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by kalos72

Oil independence at what cost? The fact we are not spending more money on researching the NEXT new technology is troubling.

I do not want another 50 years on oil...

(Note: this may seem like I'm grousing at you, but I promise I'm not)

...at the cost of no more wars for the stuff? No more living under the sword of damocles and bowing and genuflecting to a bunch of 14th-century tribesmen who happen to have lear jets and bentleys and brutally suppress anyone who's not them (I mean, specifically them)? No more excuses for the OBLs of the world because fuck them and their big black rock in the middle of the damn desert?

Yeah that's a hell of a terrible price to pay.

Fact is, you're never going to get away from oil. Ever. Nuclear is safer, but what about the exotic (read: lithium) materials for the electric batteries in your car? Not exactly recyclable. Also those aren't in quantity in the US and we wind up going overseas for it...back to square one. Plus there's a lot POL does that doesn't go into your gas tank - tires, asphalt, lubricants, jets which despite recent advances don't fly on anything BUT dirty ol' kerosene. If we ditch oil and go electric with our vehicles, pollution will skyrocket because clean coal is further off than oil independence and still has a huge human cost and environmental impact. Plus - fun fact - coal smoke has radioisotopes in it! So downwind from a coal plant is like being downwind from a nuclear plant in terms of what you're breathing, eating and drinking in.

Solar cells wear out, and the chemicals used to make them are horrendously toxic and many are petroleum based plastics. Wind farms are a joke at the kwh/cost ratio, hydro-electric only works near places you've got the rivers, waterfalls and lakes to dam up (and good luck with getting that through environmental concerns). Fusion should start up in a "prototype" stage in France by 2050 thanks to a multi-national effort that will, when they switch the thing on, have cost $500 billion. And all it is is a prototype. By 2080, we'll hopefully have a working design where they can start using them regularly. Hopefully.

The reality is this: none of it is a great option but some are better than the others. As I said our vehicles are getting more and more fuel efficient and cleaner anyway, we're digging the stuff out of the ground here at home so it's gonna get cheaper - all in all we're in pretty good shape. Practically, we're "on oil" forever, in some way shape or fashion. There's no silver bullet fix for our energy needs...

[RN7]

Originally Posted by kalos72

Oil independence at what cost? The fact we are not spending more money on researching the NEXT new technology is troubling.

I do not want another 50 years on oil...

Well it depends on what new technology your referring to. In all technology fields America is generally the leader or one of the leaders ranging from aerospace to space exploration, to biochemistry and nanotechnology. In regards to energy the only bigger event than could occur than America's new oil resources would be viable nuclear fusion. In that field American research done at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Sandia among others is only rivalled by European research reactors in England, France and perhaps Russia.

[kalos72]

But thats just it...there is no next technology.

We are so sold on oil that instead of spending the money looking for that next tech, we would rather look for more oil.

Big business has our R&D bought so they would never release the next tech without them controlling it.