RE: Mike Richards - part d'uh
"....No, I was pointing out that any extra oil from the US offshore fields will do nothing to improve American energy security...." Hmmmm, oil from US, with no external parties involved, versus oil from Iraq where the pipeline could be blown, or the Iranians could start another tanker war; or oil from Venezula where Chavez could decide to outlaw oil exports to countries he deems "unfriendly", a very likely scenario given his illogical practices so far; or oil from Burma, which could trun round and promise all its supply to China for political favours... Oh yeah, you really thought that one through - NOT!
"....With over 1 million wells drilled, North America is a mature region for oil and gas exploration and the potential for huge new reserves are very small. Proven reserves are around 21 billion barrels...." Even the US oil companies aren't sure what's there since the Dems won't let them even look, but I have seen projections with much larger figures. I guess it comes down to which set of figures you'd rather believe, and you obviously believe the ones coming from Greenpeace or the like.
"....(sounds a lot, but it's only 3 years of total US demand)...." Who said it had to meet the whole US demand? Are you assuming that nobody will sell the US oil in the future? Even if it supplied 20% of US needs per year it would massively reduce the pump price through simple supply and demand economics. Oh, right, I forgot - Dems don't get that eekohnomix thingummy. You guys may even be WORSE than Gordon Brown!
"....Shale oil was supposedly economic when oil was above $50ppb, and yet it is still not being recovered...." Actually, when it hit $75pb several small companies did re-open family shale facilities as for them it was economic. However, to produce on a large scale would need more water as you say, but as has been pointed out, several trans-continental pipeline projects have been completed to pump oil out of regions, so it wouldn't be so hard to build a similar pipeline to ship water in. All that would be needed would be a little investment and maybe some incentives. Sorry, I forgot again, the Dems are too busy building bridges to nowhere to bother with ideas like water pipelines.
The shale oil fields in Colorado contain an estimated 3 trillion barrels of oil, which is about the rest of the world's conventional oil resources put together. At some point, even if the US does somehow magically convert itself to a non-oil economy (nuke stations and electric cars?), it will be many years before the expanding Third World catches up. So, even if that shale oil is not used by the US for internal supply it can be exported as other oil resources drop off, which means it becomes a big plus in the balance of import-export figures. It would seem sensible to start looking at ways to extract it now. Oops, sorry, forgot that the Dems like Obama can't see further than the next election.