twentysixtwo
Enlightened
Steve, Shale oil is being mined as we speak. Has been for the past few years. I think the article was in Wired, about a year ago. The technology to extract it has improved signiicantly, and the breakeven was somewhere north of $40 a barrel.
There's also a growing theory in the geological community that oil reserves are not as limited as we may think - that is, that oil is not from fossilized forests and dinosaurs, but some unknown geological process.
That said, oil is still a dirty, expensive, way to go, with all sorts of other political, etc implications. There is also the question as to how quickly it regenerates if, in fact, it does. Oil may or may not be a near-limitless resource, but clearly our ability to get it as fast as we use it is not.
There's also a growing theory in the geological community that oil reserves are not as limited as we may think - that is, that oil is not from fossilized forests and dinosaurs, but some unknown geological process.
That said, oil is still a dirty, expensive, way to go, with all sorts of other political, etc implications. There is also the question as to how quickly it regenerates if, in fact, it does. Oil may or may not be a near-limitless resource, but clearly our ability to get it as fast as we use it is not.