The oil shale projects were abandoned when Shell's estimates came in at $5-8 billion to produce 50 kb/d. Sasol's Secunda CTL plant is the largest GHG emission source in all of Africa, too.
Exploiting the oil shales of the US will take a huge amount of water, even with Shell's theoretically less thirsty in situ process; read this report to get an idea of what will be involved: Water on the Rocks: Oil Shale Water Rights in Colorado. Meanwhile Lakes Powell and Mead slink further towards evaporating completely, meaning loss of water supply and electricity generation to the SW; oil shale projects would hasten this end, which is not far off in any case - one study postulated a 50% chance by 2021 of Lake Mead drying up past the point where the Hoover Dam could effectively operate; in this light I seriously doubt kerogen will be processed, without a states' rights war being involved that is. We'd do much better to save fuel with simple measures such as keepin our tires properly inflated.
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The oil shale projects were abandoned when Shell's estimates came in at $5-8 billion to produce 50 kb/d. Sasol's Secunda CTL plant is the largest GHG emission source in all of Africa, too.
Exploiting the oil shales of the US will take a huge amount of water, even with Shell's theoretically less thirsty in situ process; read this report to get an idea of what will be involved: Water on the Rocks: Oil Shale Water Rights in Colorado. Meanwhile Lakes Powell and Mead slink further towards evaporating completely, meaning loss of water supply and electricity generation to the SW; oil shale projects would hasten this end, which is not far off in any case - one study postulated a 50% chance by 2021 of Lake Mead drying up past the point where the Hoover Dam could effectively operate; in this light I seriously doubt kerogen will be processed, without a states' rights war being involved that is. We'd do much better to save fuel with simple measures such as keepin our tires properly inflated.