Out west we may have what could be called a "Persia on the Plains."
A Rand Corporation study says the Green River Formation, which covers parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, has the largest known oil shale deposits in the world, holding from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels of crude.
Of that, some 800 billion barrels are recoverable with current technology — roughly triple Saudi Arabia's current known reserves.
Nick Loris of the Heritage Foundation says: "If full-scale production begins within five years, the U.S. could completely end its dependence on OPEC by 2020." That's quite a forecast, given that nearly a half of our oil today comes from that monopoly.
Indeed, there is enough North American petroleum trapped in oil sands and shale rock to form our own OPEC.
While OPEC, the Saudis, and even the U.S. Congress are telling us to pound sand, at least one U.S. company wants to get energy from it.
Yet:
The Senate Appropriations Committee today narrowly defeated Sen. Wayne Allard's attempt to end a moratorium related to oil shale development in Colorado.
If you want to complain about high gas prices complain to Congress.
