Since the US has the largest reserves of Oil Shale in the world, why aren't we aggressively producing it?

With the high price of crude and a lower cost of in situ extraction technology for Oil Shale, why wouldn't we be vigorously ramping up production of our domestic reserves? i.e. the Green River FormationSince the US has the largest reserves of Oil Shale in the world, why aren't we aggressively producing it?
As you obviously know, traditional methods of shale extraction would not be able to compete with the current price of crude. Only a few in-situ methods have actually been patented, most aren't ready for full-scale production. There would significant costs associated with ramping up these technologies to the point of competing with crude, and after the huge shale bust of the 70's (when people thought it would become cost competitive), people are dubious about investing. Also, the only truly effective in-situ methods would be quite damaging to the earth, and if extraction really ramped up, this could be a problem.





In short, it is still cheaper and economically safer to stick with crude oil at the moment. But things could change with changes in oil prices and extraction technology.Since the US has the largest reserves of Oil Shale in the world, why aren't we aggressively producing it?
because of the Environmentalist have their hand in the DEMS pocket
From purely a standpoint of national security, the United States runs on oil and keeping a steady supply flowing to this country is imperative. So, you use up other peoples (countries) resources before you use up your own. At this point it is cheaper to import foreign oil (if you dont count the cost in human lives, which I do), use up other countries reserves and in the process, reduce supply which increases demand which increases the value of our oil. The hard fact is that the United States has the fire power to go in and take other countries oil and not too many countries have the fire power to come in and take ours.





The next step is for someone in Indiana or Iowa or some genius at MIT to come up with an alternative, renewable fuel resource so that we are no longer dependent upon foreign oil and we never have to tap into our reserves. People are waiting for the government to solve the problem and complaining about the price of gas. It is time to re-discover our American ingenuity and re-apply ourselves to the problems this country has instead of waiting for someone else (including the government) to solve our problems. In the meantime, we sit on our reserves in case that doesnt happen.





Barbara


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