North American energy Independence is it worth the environmental cost?

*US to be top oil producer by 2017, report says, America will be self-sufficient by 2030, study finds: The consequences are ‘‘potentially far reaching’’ for global energy markets and trade, the report said. Birol noted, for example, that Middle Eastern oil once bound for the United States would probably be rerouted to China. US-mined coal, facing declining demand in its home market, is already heading to Europe and China instead. 

 

There are several components of the sudden shift in the world’s energy supply, but the prime mover is a resurgence of US oil and gas production, particularly the unlocking of new reserves of oil and gas found in shale rock. The widespread adoption of techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has made those reserves much more accessible, and, in the case of natural gas, resulted in a vast glut that has sent prices plunging. The report predicted that the United States would overtake Russia as the leading producer of natural gas in 2015.

I do not like Fracking or horizontal drilling but imagine the United States as the worlds leading gas And oil exporter? Instability is roiling world oil markets, and Americans are paying $3.50 a gallon for gas. And oil shale fever is again rising in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

From what I have seen already we are destroying peoples food and water sources making them dependent on who? and grossly destabilizing the ground. Everywhere fracking goes on earthquakes are showing up regardless of the fact that there was no earthquakes in the past and it is no ones fault of course, it is natural my rear.

To me for the people to think there is any plus at all at our becoming energy independent they would want to see the price at the pump go down. 

That you know will never happen because it is not in the interest of oil companies. As they do now, whenever something good or bad happens that may or may not even affect the industry they raise prices. The world as a whole have become mice living and running on a clogged and polluted wheel never to get off till we die.

Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth. It requires clear cutting ancient forest, digging up the dirt, and using massive amounts of water and energy to extract oil from it.

The process leaves behind giant toxic lakes and has been linked to cancer in nearby communities. The proposed 2,000 mile Keystone XL pipeline would carry tar sands oil across major sources of drinking water and farmland in the United States. Avatar Director James Cameron Tours Tar Sands; Called for Halt to Project

I first wrote about Canada's oil sand and our massive amounts of shale oil 8 years ago when conventional oil source were getting increasingly scarce, expensive, and in jeopardy. I was unaware that we had more oil reserves than the entire world combined and have been mining and trying to find economical ways to convert it to usable oil since the 19th century. Under Bush that research was secretly stepped up while we were off war mongering in all the worlds oil areas.

I have gotten many investment offers on it. I was a bit surprised to find out the following on Shale oil!

A headline on an old newspaper reads: Oil Shale Development Imminent,". That edition of the defunct Grand Junction News, was published at the dawn of the 20th century. More than a hundred years later, instability is roiling world oil markets and shale oil and oil sand fever is again rising. Our shale oil is in the geologic region known as the Piceance Basin, part of the Green River Formation that stretches across the rugged plains of northwestern Colorado and parts of Wyoming and Utah.

There is no dispute that a thousand feet below the isolated ranch country here on Colorado's western slope lie almost unimaginable oil riches. It's locked in sedimentary rock -- essentially immature oil that given a few million years under heat and pressure would produce pools of oil easy to extract. Canada is pristine to Canadians and that area is pristine to me but we do not matter only corporations, industry, and Government.

The Energy Department and private industry estimate that a trillion barrels are here in Colorado -- about the same amount as the entire world's known reserves of conventional oil. The entire Green River Formation might hold as much as 2 trillion barrels.

supposedly secretly pushed by the Bush administration and legislation from Congress , and still ongoing under Obama, the energy industry is mobilizing to unlock the secret of oil shale. As it has before, shale oil holds out the hope of a USA no longer dependent on foreign oil. Shell Oil is engaged in a multi year test of a new technology for extracting the oil. Previous efforts that were uneconomical and environmentally destructive entailed mining the rock, crushing it and heating it above ground to release the oil.

Shell's new process involves sinking heaters deep underground, cooking the rock at 700 degrees and recovering the oil and natural gas with conventional drilling. For a decade, Shell has been ramping up its research on private property here. It is also one of a handful of companies vying for research and development leases on larger tracts of federal land nearby. That could lead to full-scale development across 1,200 square miles of western Colorado.

Four years ago I did a story on shale oil and oil sand but it did not go over well because people felt it would never happen. Well? Shale oil and oil sand

James Joiner
Gardner Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com