America

Royal Dutch Shell, the international oil giant, thinks the solution to America’s oil crisis may lie in the heart of Colorado. Since 1981, the company has quietly funded a multi-million dollar research project that many call a quest for energy’s Holy Grail. The mission: to discover a way to safely and economically extract fuel from oil shale, a type of sedimentary rock found in Wyoming, Utah, and especially Colorado’s Western Slope. The potential windfall is staggering. Studies over the years by industry and government alike estimate that there may be between 800 billion and more than one trillion barrels of oil locked up in these rocks–nearly three times the known reserves in Saudi Arabia. That would be enough oil to supply America for the next 400 years. “It’s coming eventually. It’s just a matter of when,” say Roy McClung, mayor of Parachute, Colorado, a community in the heart of oil shale country. “Should all the stuff come into place, this area is going to–well, I don’t know if anyone is ready for that kind of growth.”

With oil bubbling over $140 a barrel, the political push is heating up. On Monday, President Bush announced that he is lifting an executive ban on offshore drilling. In June, he also championed oil shale, calling it “a highly promising resource,” and asked Congress to lift a year-old national moratorium that critics say prohibits the industry from tapping oil-rich shale deposits.

Newsweek