Facts show U.S. has huge oil shale reserve

A previous letter writer excoriated, as a myth, Fourth District Congressman Tom Latham's statement about the oil reserves of the Dakotas, Montana and Rocky Mountains. Latham was referring, of course, to the oil shale reserves of those regions.

Consider the following from the U.S. Department of the Interior (ostseis.anl.gov/guide/oilshale/index.cfm): “Estimates of the oil resource in place within the Green River Formation range from 1.2 (trillion) to 1.8 trillion barrels. Not all resources in place are recoverable; however, even a moderate estimate of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil ... is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Present U.S. demand for petroleum products is about 20 million barrels per day. If oil shale could be used to meet a quarter of that demand, the estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from the Green River Formation would last for more than 400 years.”

From a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey (www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2182): Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has stated that “the USGS scientific report shows significant quantities of oil locked up in the shale rocks of the Piceance (i.e., Rocky Mountains) Basin. ... The Piceance Basin has an estimated 1.525 trillion barrels of in-place oil shale resources.”

So, the Green River formation has 1.5 trillion barrels alone. Including other oil shales, the U.S. has more than 2 trillion barrels of oil shale oil.

Paul Rudolph

Coralville