Colorado oil shale?

[serryjw]

Friend sent me an email from another friend that says we have more than plenty of oil shale in Colorado & Wyoming to last centuries. I have an idea of what it is. It sound like it requires more energy to extract than is fessible..Where is the water going to come from? Is the plausible or some HUGE rebates for BIG oil companies to destroy the environment?

[Exultant Democracy]

1. The problem isn't that we are running out of oil right now

the problem is that we are running out of cheap oil. Deeper mining and more extensive refinement techniques will be required and it will cause even more ecological damage then it does already. You can find oil almost everywhere if you dig down deep enough, a lot of people don't remember but Pennsylvania used to be the oil capital of the United States.

[benburch]

2. And most of the oil in PA is still in the ground.

PA mostly escaped stripper well technology because by the time it existed the wells were long since closed, and would have had to be re-bored. Wasn't economical. Well, economical takes on a whole new definition at $50+ a bbl.

[serryjw]

3. So what is the problem with drilling

for shale oil?

[brokensymmetry]

4. You don't drill for it - therein lies the problem.

You have to mine the shale and expose it to
lots of heat and pressure to extract the oil.
Or you could heat the rock (before it's been
mined), and cool the surrounding rock so the
oil won't migrate. Then you can extract it.
Of course, all this takes lots of energy. Water
too, as I recall.

I've read that oil shale has roughly the same
energy content as an equal mass of potato.
So we may get oil out, but it won't be
cheap oil.

[greenman3610]

5. the race is on between alternative tech and death-tech

the price of oil makes both alternative energy and
enhanced oil production/ oil shale/ tar sands feasible.

Both will be pursued - we have to make as much noise as
possible and resist environmentally disastrous extraction-
raise the cost for troglodytes still going that way -
and do as much as possible to grease the way for
the alternatives.
Meanwhile, the cost of solar, wind, and biomass
keep coming down - eventually they will win on the
merits if we can keep from destroying the planet before that.

[woodstockny]

6. Do you really think solar wind is viable?

And if so, what does this imply about the importance (or control) of weather management research?