Both oil shales and oil sands offer a tremendous source of oil IF we have the energy to extract the oil – getting oil from either of these sources currently requires tremendous amounts of energy (and clean water) – given our current technology, getting oil from either of these sources is probably a NET LOSS

One of the things happening in Canada is that natural gas supplies are being diverted to the oil sands regions – places that are dependent on this natural gas (like the northeastern US) will suffer rising prices as the competition for natural gas continues

I haven’t studied the economics but I question whether it makes sense to use clean-burning, easily transportable natural gas to refine oil from oil sands

The last article I read about the oil shales talked about the challenges created by the porous rock in which this oil resides – the technique being discussed was to freeze the ground to create a large frozen box of dirt in the earth and then superheat the dirt inside this box to cause the oil to flow out of the shale so it could be collected – lots of energy required for both the freezing and heating processes and the amount of oil recovered was trivial

capeman – are you aware of any current technology for extracting the oil in oil sands or oil shales that isn’t a net loss?