Want To Forget OPEC

With gas and oil prices up partially due to a weaker dollar we have the opportunity to remove ourselves from OPEC dependency and shatter global oil prices by exploring our own massive reserves with Canada and Mexico that dwarf Middle-Eastern oil reserves. Ace of Spades points to this report (in pdf) from the DOE on just the shale oil in the Green River formation of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming not to mention the off shore fields in the Gulf of Mexico and both coasts and ANWR. We could drive the price of oil way down if the environuts would just let us. I am talking about trillions of barrels of oil just sitting there waiting to be pumped out.

The largest known oil shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable. For potentially recoverable oil shale resources, we roughly derive an upper bound of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil and a lower bound of about 500 billion barrels. For policy planning purposes, it is enough to know that any amount in this range is very high. For example, the midpoint in our estimate range, 800 billion barrels, is more than triple the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, 800 billion barrels of recoverable resources would last for more than 400 years.
...Shell anticipates that, in contrast to the cost estimates for mining and surface retorting, the petroleum products produced by their thermally conductive in-situ method will be competitive at crude oil prices in the mid-$20s per barrel. The company is still developing the process, however, and cost estimates could easily increase as more information is obtained and more detailed designs become available. [PA note: even if costs turned out to be 3X, its still economically viable at today's prices]

Development Timeline. Currently, no organization with the management,
technical, and financial wherewithal to develop oil shale resources has announced its intent to build commercial-scale production facilities... [PA note: by 2007 Shell had already started ramping this in Canada]

Meanwhile the Democrats are smoking their crack-pipe again wanting mandates on renewable sources of energy other that hydro, or nuclear and what would those be, wind, solar? We have another very abundant source of cheap energy, coal, and as technology has improved it has become a much cleaner source than in the past. Townhall has an informative piece today on alternative energy and coal fired electric plants.

Every week brings new claims that clean, free, inexhaustible renewable energy will soon replace the “dirty” fuels that sustain our economy today. A healthy dose of reality is needed.

Over half of our electricity comes from coal. Gas and nuclear generate 36% of our electricity. Barely 1% comes from wind and solar. Coal-generated power typically costs less per kilowatt hour than alternatives – leaving families with more money for food, housing, transportation and healthcare.
By 2020, the United States will need 100,000 megawatts of new electricity, say EIA, industry and utility company analysts. Unreliable wind power simply cannot meet these demands.

I have looked into solar since I live in sunny Ca. and have a Southern facing roof line and it would cost about $17,000 for me to install. My power bill averages about $50 bucks a month doing the math means about 25 years before it pays for itself possibly less if energy costs soar, not a fiscally prudent move. I use a very renewable source for heat, wood, in a very efficient stove. Trees after all convert CO2 to oxygen that they release for me to breath and sequester the carbon as their body for me to burn for warmth and I get needed exercise cutting and splitting it, dual purpose. I cut my winter power bill by 75% as a result since installing my stove and that is with my thermostat set a 55 and being chilly all the time now I am warm and cozy with the joy of a fire on the hearth.