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.