Billions of Barrels Under the Bakken Shale
A new report from the U.S. Geological Survey shows billions of barrels of retrievable oil beneath the Bakken Shale Formation which covers a large area from the Canadian border, down into North Dakota and Montana. A Reuters UK report states:
The Bakken Shale, comprised of thin layers of rock about two miles down, holds about 3.65 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, the USGS said. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska could hold more than 10 billion barrels of oil.
Although ANWR is currently federally protected land, there are already companies retrieving the oil from the Bakken Shale. The current survey from the USGS, completed at the request of Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is viewed as good news according to a statement in the Fox News story. This is due to the 25% increase in this estimate of retrievable oil over previous estimates in years past. Senator Dorgan believes this will bring “significant new investment” into the area.
As a proponent of energy independence, I am in favor of acquiring our own oil as part of that goal. However, the focus of energy independence cannot entirely rest on obtaining our own oil for the purpose of supplying our massive oil consumption habits. That is where this type of discovery is alarming. Pursuit of this resource can be a positive thing if environmental protection policies are adhered to during the retrieving process, coupled with continued efforts in pursuing alternate renewable sources of energy.
Photo Credit: Lissa Joy on Flickr
Put in a solar tower, use that energy to retrieve the oil from the shale, keep building solar installations in this very sunny area as the oil is depleted, so that when the oil is gone, you will still have the solar to live on. Donate lots of money to cancer research because the benzine molecules you will release from the earth will cause even more human misery. Don’t learn from this, be human and take the easiest, fastest path to satiation, after all we are oil junkies even at our own peril.
Uncle B - I could not have said it better myself.
Uncle B that was perfect
I am seeing all this agreement with Uncle B. and while I don’t necessarily disagree with everything he has stated I am not sure how this relates to what this post reports. The oil is already being extracted from this area. Solar Power - great idea! As is obtaining our own oil in the U.S. if we can especially from an area that is currently drilled (as opposed to opening new areas that are not currently drilled). This is not putting a “band-aid” on anything, the fuel dependent public is not going to stop using fuel overnight, obtaining our own fuel from an area that is already being drilled makes sense to me. Why should we continue to purchase Oil from the mid-east and Canada if we don’t have to? With the emphasis being, in the last paragraph, Energy Independence cannot only focus on continually supplying our mass oil consumption.
[...] reports by the American Geological Survey showing an estimated 3.65 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken there is still talk of the world’s oil supply being [...]
Clearly we should all live like pigs and crap in the woods right!?? Everyone wants cleaner technology, that is why the US is doing better than the members that have signed on to the stupid KYOTO treaty! Let the market work so that it doesn’t cripple our economy.
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