Chevron admits Oil Shale Will Use Huge Amounts of Western Water.

[Warpy]

1. Clue Phone: the west no longer has enough water to supply them

Winter snows are not falling and the summer monsoon has fizzled every year but one since 1992. There is no water they can use that isn't already being used for drinking water and agriculture.

That technology is either going to mean shale trains headed for the Great Lakes and refining there or it's going to be strangled in its cradle, too expensive and without the one essential resource it relies most heavily on.