The United States has over three trillion barrels of oil buried in shale rock in three western states.  (That’s about eight times the total quantity of oil utilised since the beginning of time.)  Oil is extremely difficult to extract from shale, but the technology is coming.  Globe and Mail business columnist Neil Reynolds says the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which developed the first nuclear bomb, is on the case.  Is this a new Manhattan Project?

[I]t's a good bet that, within a decade or two, the rock that burns will flow through pipelines in quantities large enough to make the United States self-sufficient in energy for a very long time.
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The United States has always regarded shale oil as a strategic military reserve.
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Last year, President George W. Bush re-established shale oil as a national strategic resource and instructed the Department of Energy and the Department of Defence to find ways to develop it. The government subsequently called for expressions of interest from energy companies. One of these, Chevron, already owns 100,000 acres of shale land in Colorado. In September, the government announced that it had selected Chevron to work with Los Alamos to develop and operate an experimental shale oil recovery project.

Scientists at Los Alamos are aiming to develop an environmentally friendly method of extraction, involving the use of new solvent systems.  Even at oil prices well below the current level, commercial production of shale oil appears feasible and profitable.

By an amazing coincidence, another column in the Globe’s business section discusses one factor that could confound American hopes of energy self-sufficiency.  As Deborah Yedlin puts it, “Democrats and energy don’t mix”.

For access to Mr Reynolds’s full column, click here.
For access to Ms Yedlin’s full column, click here.