Rocky Mountains Hold Endless Supply of Oil

Can you say twenty billion dollars a year? If the United States can produce at least three million barrels a day (Which according to the RAND Corporation they can) thats how much the U.S. stands to make each year. However the Energy Department for the United States believes this is only a conservative estimate as we are more likely able to produce somewhere along the lines of 10 million barrels a day. After hearing the Iraq war will cost $1.9 trillion this may be one way to cover costs in the near future for much of the United States debt.

While gas prices soar, the economy is in limbo, and the war continues, many companies have expressed interest in extracted this oil for as little as $10 a barrel. Considering when barrels cost $50-$70 each it is easy to say this is a monumental finding. So big that in 2005 George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 which allowed the beginning phases of extraction. So where is this piece of land and why exactly has it not been publicized more?

For years the Green River Formation has been known as one of the most prolific areas for finding fossils as far back as 1856 when Dr. John Evans brought the first fossil fish (theKnightia eocaena) to the world of science. Green River covers parts of western Colorado, eastern Utah, and southwestern Wyoming and a thousand feet deep inside the Rocky Mountains lies what is called oil shale. Which according to the Oil Shale and Tar Sands Programmatic EIS InformationCenter in Lehman’s terms is a rock with a greasy texture and when heated can give you oil.

The reason for lack of publicizing this 16, 000 square miles of oil shale may have been from expenses. While the government has known about this area since 1930 and even protected it from being touched it was more inexpensive to purchase oil from other countries than doing it ourselves here. However, with events and happenings the last six years it may be time to withdraw from our oil savings account and with companies coming forward to extract it at $10 per barrel it may be a reasonable thought to see gas prices as low as they were twenty years ago.

Pretty soon there will be new cases of Beverly Hillbillies striking it rich as the New American Oil Boom is almost upon us. We just have to hope they quit digging with a spoon like Timothy Robbins did in Shawshank Redemption and do it with some sort of urgency.