The Bureau of Land Management has been eyeing reserves in Utah and Colorado, et al, as prospective reserves of shale oil, the dirtiest and hardest to retrieve fossil fuel. Shale oil is the rocky and sandy crud that's left over after wells dry up or left alone entirely, as the retrieval has never been economically feasible. Until now, I guess. Creative way to wean the American dependence
on foreign fossil fuel: start processing our own large shale oil reserves...too bad the costs are extraordinary when it comes to the necessary energy to clean and refine the fuel, the financial investment, and the damage to the surrounding areas.
You can sign a petition that asks the BLM to halt handing over public land to Big Oil for shale prospecting right here. Now, I have a friend who works oil rigs in the Gulf, and I love this man, and I'm not trying to threaten his livelihood, but the destruction of more landscape in exchange for the dirtiest and costliest form of fossil fuel, and only enough for a few months, and only after years of development, seems like the wrong direction to head.
Is it possible for us as a country, or even broader, as a global specie to figure out a way away from poisonous forms of energy? Is it possible for humanity to step up and bite the bullet and make the necessary hard choices before it's too late? Is it already too late?
I'm not that pessimistic, but really folks, the technology is there and has been for a while. It may not be glamorous or cheap, but it may just be necessary.
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