Could the Rockies out-produce Saudi Arabia?
Comment: Im tired of the environmentalists complaining about oil production. The environmentalists can NOT solve any energy problem, they only complain, what good are they and why do we care about what they have to say?
Comment: Everyone take note from T Boone Pickens website addressing America's need for alternative energy sources.
Boone's a genius and oil man that is really concerned about change -- not oil profits. Check it out:
http://www.pickensplan.com/
Comment: The answer is NOT MORE WAS TO GET OIL.
The answer is getting Americans off our dependency for oil altogether.
Of course, big business (like Exxon, BP, et al and Detroit) don't want that. It would cost them billions to retool their businesses.
We dropped the ball after the first OPEC mess back in the Carter Administration and looks like we're headed for a repeat performance of shallow attempts at alternative energy and transportation sources until OPEC and big oil drop their prices again.
Then, we'll be right back to buying Hummers and monster trucks.
When will we ever learn that we must make consistent efforts to ween ourselves from this oil habit.
Comment: Oil is high because there is no reserve capacity to address the risk of supply disruptions and of course the weakest dollar in recent memory. The Bush administration???s aggressive foreign policy towards the Middle East, especially Iran, is dearly factored into oil futures prices. As for oil shale, extraction takes immense volumes of water, a rare commodity in the arid region encompassing the deposits. The best path would be electric vehicles, to remove the daily commute from our oil diet, and save oil for the industries (aviation, trucking, and so on) having fewer alternatives.
Comment: Oil is high because there is no reserve capacity to address the risk of supply disruptions and of course the weakest dollar in recent memory. The Bush administration???s aggressive foreign policy towards the Middle East, especially Iran, is dearly factored into oil futures prices. As for oil shale, extraction takes immense volumes of water, a rare commodity in the arid region encompassing the deposits. The best path would be electric vehicles, to remove the daily commute from our oil diet, and save oil for the industries (aviation, trucking, and so on) having fewer alternatives.
Comment: Some of my ancestors were the ones that used to rich oil shale in the homes, none of them built the fireplace out of the stuff. I am a native of Colorado and my family has been here since 1879. We were here during the booms and busts and we will be here for what ever comes next. There is no doubt that getting the oil out of rock is difficult but I feel that we must, where there is a will there is a way.The "can do" attitude that earlier Americans had, has been watered down to a list of excuses and whining special interest groups. Please America, get your heads out of your a-- and "get it done"
Comment: The fact or myth that we always understood was that North America has huge supplies of natural gas and oil. (The partisan politics is killing us - so the media is against anything the president offers. instead they look into the mouth of Gore - the guy who must stop eating to save the world). The Perisan Gulf oil was cheap oil, because the workers were cheap to get (from the neighbouring countries). Yes the Cheap Oil has ended. Now Americans should find the courage to get our own oil (O yes no body here wants to work for low wages!! even school drop outs) May be you guys should get some Mexicans to do the job so you can keep driving the SUVs. Stop whining and get on the job like the great country this used to be. Work on your dream of the next "fuel", but try to live for today.
Comment: The problem with the high oil prices is becuase of the weak dollar and oil speculation. This is what happens when the energy market has been deregulated (thanks to Dr. Phil and Enron). So you don't believe much of the prices is due to oil speculation? How do you explan that oil consumption world wide is done by 1% this time last year, but prices have doubled?
The subprime market has crashed. The Chinese and Saudis don't want our money. They are stuffing them into Oil. Goldman Sachs had hedge that oil will be $200 per barrel. Shades of Enron going on? Guess there going to rip off granny Mildred again and all American can say is to argue whether Obama is a Muslin.
America WAKE UP! or bow down your Asian/Saudis Master.
Comment: Did any of you read the article you are commenting on? "The company's idea is to heat oil shale underground to temperatures of about 700 degrees for three years or longer. In turn, the oil oozes out of the rock and can then be extracted. To avoid contaminating underground water, areas surrounding the heated rock are frozen to create "freeze walls", theoretically preventing the oil from migrating." It costs more money to get the oil than you could ever make by selling the oil. It requires more energy to get the oil than the oil extracted can produce. And it requires water that doesn't exist where the shale is found. Even if all that weren't true, it would take a dozen years or more to even get started. This idea has been raised and de-bunked repeatedly in the last hundred years. Moving on.
Comment: Congress has had an "anti-energy" position for years. They continue standing in the way on nuclear, coal, offshore, ANWR, wind, and solar. But they blame the oil companies for excess profits while the government makes more in royalties and taxes on gasoline and diesel than the oil companies make in profit.
Comment: This article is great!! If we can supply our own oil we would not have to buy oil over sees anymore!! Why should we keep making the saudis richer!!
Comment: Can ANYONE tell me why oil companies would willingly overproduce oil to drive down the prices when they are making record profits?
Comment: Great! We lost the king of beers to foreigners and now we lose the black gold to RDS.
But I'll remain optimistic that American citizens will strike "Browns Gas" very soon.
Comment: Fact checking by the reporter on this article is needed. 800B barrels of oil equates to roughly 100 years of US oil consumption (at 2005 rates of consumption of 21.9M barrels per day), not 400 years. Given our rate of increase of consumption (roughly 2% per year), this figure is closer to 65 years.
Comment: Do you think that Bush, the OIL MAN and Saudi BFF, blaming the Dems in Congress will piss-off Nancy Pelosi enough to put impeachment back on the table? This has to be Bush's most Ballsy move yet - By going on video (permantent record) and blaming the Dems for high gas prices and essentially the bad economy, he takes care of his presidential legacy rather than taking responsibility for his conspiracy with his family/friends and the Saudis for price gouging. The little DICK-tater is brilliant. This video will be played on a loop in the GW Bush presidential library in the year 2050 when all of us are gone and there won't be anyone around to tell the truth about what really happened. Unless the Dems in congress fight back with impeachment, the DEM party will disappear and go down in history as a bunch of idiots.
Comment: America's Untapped Oil........Is America's Untapped intelligence.
Is America's untapped ability to move on from 1910, into the future with renewable energy sources.
Oil WILL run out far before the Sun does.
Why not talk about the fact that we are sitting in our cars on top of technology that hasn't changed much in about a century?
LETS TALK ABOUT THE LACK OF PROGRESS.
Hey Ford, GMC, etc! Make a good car and you will have a good business.
Obama is right???..the car industry workers suffer because of cursory and sometimes corrupt management teams of these corporations. The collusion of the oil and car industries leads directly to the loss of jobs in the United States.
Questions:
1. Why in a hundred+ years can we not get away from the internal combustion engine? Is it because companies like Ford don't want to? hmmm..
2. Why do we put AIR in our tires? I think the answer is the same as the first question. The tire industry doesn???t want to make THAT good a tire???..
3. Where are our scientists? Why in the most modern country in the world we can't come up with something better is profound to me, and don't bring the fuel cell in to this either because that's 1800's technology too.
Someone "needs" YOU and ME to be high on money and low on cash. It's time to get green with our energy policy.
Democrats win my vote in 08...???..there is no debate???.
Comment: "Untapped Wind or Untapped Sun - in reality untapped ignorance."
Enough of your OBFUSCATIONS!
I'm in the Solar Energy reality. It's what I do for a living.
Nay saying tools such as you are to partly to blame for America having fallen behind the rest of the world on these renewable types of energy.
Here's a great question for yall pessimists: Why do we put AIR in our TIRES still? Is it because we can't make a tire that won't leak?
Don't be fooled.....wind power and solar power alone can provide enough to power the entire United States.
TONS of jobs can be created building and assembling wind turbines right here in the states.
Tons of jobs can be kept at the car companies, if they were to build cars that give the buyers options about what kind of energy the car will use.
Can AMERICANS make the better solar panel?
Can AMERICANS make the wind turbines?
Can AMERICANS make the better electric car?
YES WE CAN!
Our Sun puts out 1000 watts per square meter!!
Sanyo makes solar panels right now that can collect 20% of that.
It's only going to get better.
Oil is old....just like the people protecting it.
Comment: Untapped Wind or Untapped Sun - in reality untapped ignorance.
People that spout nonsense such as - "the united states can grow its way to energy independence" - or those that expect solar (or wind) can immediately replace our hydrocarbon energy sources really need to get a fundamental understanding of engineering.
It isn't enough to mouth pablum - it isn't a question of mouthing the correct phrases. Our present energy policy develeoped because it was the most exploitable, the most developable, the most scalable.
People have NO understanding of the issues, fed by (mostly democratic) politicians hoping to capitalize.
Each alternative source has issues: For example if you are a proponent of solar power, do you understand what energy density is? Can you quote what the available energy is per square meter? What is the conversion efficiency?
The debacle of politician inspired energy solutions is illustrated by ethanol. Congress mandated ethanol production. So at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars tons of food were turned into fuel. But the net energy production - after production and distribution costs - was miniscule. It would have been almost as efficient if we had simply burned the dollar bills. Meanwhile we degrade our farmland and raise wholesale food costs 76%.
McCain said famously - your jobs are lost. Similarly to americans I would say - the era of $3.00 gas - of SUV's is forever gone. And what will follow will be a long period of retrenchment as we adjust to ever more expensive sources of energy.
Comment: Untapped Wind or Untapped Sun - in reality untapped ignorance.
People that spout nonsense such as - "the united states can grow its way to energy independence" - or those that expect solar (or wind) can immediately replace our hydrocarbon energy sources really need to get a fundamental understanding of engineering.
It isn't enough to mouth pablum - it isn't a question of mouthing the correct phrases. Our present energy policy develeoped because it was the most exploitable, the most developable, the most scalable.
People have NO understanding of the issues, fed by (mostly democratic) politicians hoping to capitalize.
Each alternative source has issues: For example if you are a proponent of solar power, do you understand what energy density is? Can you quote what the available energy is per square meter? What is the conversion efficiency?
The debacle of politician inspired energy solutions is illustrated by ethanol. Congress mandated ethanol production. So at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars tons of food were turned into fuel. But the net energy production - after production and distribution costs - was miniscule. It would have been almost as efficient if we had simply burned the dollar bills. Meanwhile we degrade our farmland and raise wholesale food costs 76%.
McCain said famously - your jobs are lost. Similarly to americans I would say - the era of $3.00 gas - of SUV's is forever gone. And what will follow will be a long period of retrenchment as we adjust to ever more expensive sources of energy.
Comment: Oh...you mean another "fuel" to dig up transport and sell to the consumer at ever increasing prices.
Don't be fooled by why the media plays these energy concepts up. Through the conglomerates (the big 5) the media is in collusion with the oil industry. Just look at the banner adds running on across the major news outlets online. Car and airplane companies claiming to want to be "green". Oil companies claiming to have a "diverse" energy supply portfolio of wind, solar and other renewables.
IT'S ALL A SHAM.
If Newsweek really wanted to talk about the future of energy, the title of the story would have read, "America???s Untapped WIND", or even "America???s Untapped SUN".
OR why not talk about the fact that we are sitting in our cars on top of technology that hasn't changed much in about a century.
TALK ABOUT THE LACK OF PROGRESS.
There are many reasons we need to get off our oil addition and to start thinking green.......... jobs, environment, energy independence from tyrannical leaders of the world........................................or we can just keep it the same and buy gas to build the roads and bridges in Canada instead, or help Saudi Arabia buy some more missiles for their army..........and continue to produce crappy gas guzzling trucks that no one can afford........while watching Toyota and Honda build and sell the cars Americans are increasingly interested in buying...............we can continue to pay to inefficiently transmit electricity great distances from expensive coal plants................while we dig and drill frivolously to catch up with demand for power, scaring our back yards with huge holes and stinky refineries.........
It's about time...........and slowly but surely.........the obstruction to this fight "Republicans", are a dwindling few.
Comment: ... but is it 'CLEAN'?
Comment: Unfortunately, shale oil requires too much money, energy and water to extract. Today's Washington Post has an article that handles the issue a bit better than Newsweek did and quickly points out the absurdity of it. I don't appreciate Newsweek's teaser of an intro about there being more oil in the Rockies than Saudi Arabia and then wading through half the article to discover that this idea has been explored and debunked time and time again. Moreover, there's plenty of land to continue experimenting on without another windfall giveaway of public land.
Comment: No matter how high the price of oil, the oil shale in Colorado will not yield any oil. The problem is that more energy is used in mining and processing oil from oil shale than what is produced. Therefore, the price of oil can go to $1,000 per barrel and oil shale will still lose money. Also, oil shale operations use enormous amounts of very scarce water. For details see: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html
Comment: No matter how high the price of oil, the oil shale in Colorado will not yield any oil. The problem is that more energy is used in mining and processing oil from oil shale than what is produced. Therefore, the price of oil can go to $1,000 per barrel and oil shale will still lose money. Also, oil shale operations use enormous amounts of very scarce water. For details see: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html
Comment: We definitely can but we will have to get Congress "OUT OF THE WAY".
Comment: I worked on this oil shale mine in 1981 in Colorado as a driver of workers on the site. Let me tell you, this was environmental devastation at its worst! The mountaintop mining of West Virginia has nothing over what oil shale did to western Colorado. There was not one square inch of the planet here untouched. it was absolutely like a far, far planet. Every inch of waterfall, creek, forest was completely ripped up. Flat dirt everywhere. It was like a moonscape. Just plowed dirt every square inch. The photo in the begin of this story tells it all. I saw and worke by this cliff you see there, reduce a wilderness landscape with a waterfall to what you see there, a carved out cliff where nature once stood. Why did I do this? I needed a job and I was an enviro, still am, but I was very curious to see what was being done. I knew somebody had to do the job. It paid well, but........ And water, it takes water and water and...................................
Comment: SHALE COAL MINE IN 1981..................I THOUGHT YOU WROTE FOR HIGH TIMES IN 1981???
BY THE WAY.....................I LOVED "WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM"!
Comment: perhaps you are thinking of my alter ego, Raul Duke?
check this out & read the narrative.
http://www.youtube.com/user/hdavis21ch
Comment: Even if you pay the same, you will be keeping the money in the United States and created jobs here instead of sending the money to dictators that just want to destroy us. As always there is the environmentalist argument. If the leaders of Iran get the atomic bomb and start a nuclear war with Israel the dead would be count by tens of millions, but sometimes this is difficult to factor in environmental discussions. Let me put the argument in a way that have environmental sense: the Middle East and the Mediterranean Basin are home of many rare species and this is also the way of passage of many migratory birds. Imagine the environmental impact that the radioactive fallout of a nuclear war would have on this area. Maybe if you see it that way it would put some sense of balance in the argument about the possible danger to the environment.
Comment: Ok, what is the meaning of all this; Shell Oil Co. vs shale oil !? Can someone explain to Me the catch here. Not stupid, just curious, since "oil" in any form and/or shape, is not My field of expertise ....
Comment: It still takes more BTU to get the oil out of the ground than it will produce. This will remain the same no matter how much the oil is selling for. The only process that looks fesible is using nuclear to heat the formations. Then you still have the ground water problems. Does anyone remember the lack of water that the west has? You can not make water from nothing.
Comment: Wait a minute! I notice that shale oil is now "economically viable." This implies that the shale oil will be sold to us at the same price as foreigh oil, or higher. So, to the American consumer there is no cost saving. We'll be paying the oil companies just as much money, while despoiling the American West and depleting our own resources instead of foreign resources. .
Comment: For non-technical english major types its not a biased as usual. The north Dakota deposits have oil revoverable for the interstices of the rock - like canadian tar sands- but much deeper. The Green river basen has lots of theoritical oil but it is much more tightly bound to the rock - intigrat to the shale composition.
Comment: Must take a lot of energy to heat up rock for 3 years.
Comment: I wondered why the author of this article didn't mention the oil shale rock in Canada and their success is getting oil out of it? Is this article meant to be biased against oil shale?
Comment: I think they didn't mention it, because Canada's big oil fields -- to which I believe you are referring -- are from oil sands, not oil shale. There's been a process for getting oil from the sands for a good while, it's just recently become economically/commercially viable. Oil shale isn't quite there yet.
Comment: hmm they say that it has not happened to sell even on barrel of oil extracted from shale in the U.S. , while I do not have the sources to refute that, I do know that Canada is producing shale oil at an affordable cost due to the current prices of "traditional" oil. Use their technology to get our oil sounds like a win, win to me....
Comment: The unbelievable, staggering incompetence on energy by both the media and politicians is incredibly alarming. When there are actual solutions out there. As detailed both the Rocky Mountain Institute's "Winning the oil endgame" back we should 1) Double the efficiency of our petroleum use by building lighter weight trucks, planes, and cars. 2) Get rid of CAFE and replace it with a revenue neutral fee and rebate system whereby inefficient oil using machinges are given a "fee" at the point of sale and efficient oil using machines are given a "rebate" 3) Build and fund the research for advanced biofuel industry which can substitute for about 25% of our petroluem needs 4) Use well established techniques to save half of the projected 2025 use of natural gas and used this saved natural gas to substitute for petroleum. Total price tag $180 billion dollars over 10 years. This is a one time investment that would save us trillions of dollars.
Comment: Bravo Juggergrimrod. As an Alaskan with a Forestry and environmental science degree and job, I feel we need to stop our dependency on foreign oil for sure. My fear is that our current and latest governments may have their own agendas for wanting to keep the door open.
Anyway, we could certainly drill, yes even in my beautiful state, and get going immediately on not needing
(affordable ones
Comment: Sounds good Juggergrimrod99
I have a degree in Forestry and environmental science, so yes, I used to hate seeing our lands get drilled for oil. But, the costs we pay overseas, not just monetary have got to end.
Why can't we use some oil from Alaska (yes I live there), until we get on track and, less dedependentdependency on it.dependency on it.?
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