Shale End All Our Problems?

[gnome]

Quote from ShoeshineBoy:


The same article claims that "Royal Dutch Shell has announced that its in situ extraction technology in Colorado could be competitive at prices over $30 per barrel ($190/m3), while other technologies at full-scale production assert profitability at oil prices even lower than $20 per barrel ($130/m3)." In other words, it should be viable at current prices. Do you agree?

I live in Colorado, and 20-30 years ago there was a great buzz about oil shale. Nothing ever came of it, and not hearing anything now. Have to think that either the cost of extraction is too great or losing out to environmental/water concerns.

 

[ShoeshineBoy]

Quote from Kicking:

As for nukes, they aren't 100% safe and when there is a problem, consequences are disastrous. It's the worst thing mankind has ever invented.

I disagree. The French have kicked the world's a$$ with the old nuke technology and have proven that it can be done safely for decades.

But, more importantly, the new pebble bed technology is the wave of the future. It promises clean, efficient technology that is light years better for our future and the environment than coal:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/11/61088

Solar and pebble bed reactors are going to pull us out of this mess we are in if you ask me.

And, by the way, we all need to get used to it because the Chinese are going to build pebble bed reactors en masse:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html

Again, what's to dislike? Isn't it coal and all it's emissions that everyone hates?? You can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[nkhoi]

oil from rock? How about energy from saltwater:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3SslCpQ26IY

From what I gather it doesn't need much voltage. The energy pulses are at a specific frequency and interval which causes the water molecules to release the hydrogen. It's more technique than brute force.

 

[ShoeshineBoy]

Quote from nkhoi:

oil from rock? How about energy from saltwater:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3SslCpQ26IY

Interesting post! But, apparently, it's not really an energy source per Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kanzius

Later in 2007, Kanzius announced that the same radio frequency transmitter can also be used to burn hydrogen electrolyzed from salt water.[8] [12] The discovery was made accidentally while he was researching the use of radio waves for desalination. Kanzius said that "In this case we weren't looking for energy, we were looking for something that might do desalinization. The more we tried desalinization, the more heat we produced, until we got fire".[12] Kanzius admits that this process could not be considered an energy source, as more energy is used to produce the RF signal than can be obtained from the burning gas and stated in July 2007 that he never claimed his discovery would replace oil, asserting only that his discovery was "thought provoking."[13] The details of the process are still unreleased while Kanzius applies for a patent.[13]

 

[canuckrookie]

Quote from Jayford:

A major stumbling bloc is that it takes an unbelievably huge amount of water to undertake this process. It's really tough on the environment as well as expensive.

This would be a last alternative if we "run out", (oil just gets too expensive). It would only be a transition source, along with using ever more coal, until nuke plants, more green tech, and crap loads of EV's start being used.

GM and the oil industry made sure that EV's died a long time ago. GM instead opted for an era of SUV's. Look where that got them.