Forum Post: According to the GAO the US has the largest recoverable oil reserves in the world.
Posted 12 years ago on May 13, 2012, 4:51 p.m. EST by cherokeenation
(-1)
from New York, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
This truly embarrassing, as we strive for a green future free of hydrocarbons the reality of the enormous tax income readily available for our needs is a slap in the face.
Do we continue to starve the nation for energy to force green development or do we make the decision to go for the tax dollars that would rain down on the government? Were talking TRILLIONS of recoverable barrels. Why would the administration allow the GAO to make this testimony before committee? Especially in an election year!
"What GAO Found In its October 2010 report, GAO noted that oil shale development presents the following opportunities for the United States
• Increasing domestic oil production. Tapping the vast amounts of oil locked within U.S. oil shale formations could go a long way toward satisfying the nation’s future oil demands. Oil shale deposits in the Green River Formation are estimated to contain up to 3 trillion barrels of oil, half of which may be recoverable, which is about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves."
http://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/hearings/HHRG-112-%20SY20-WState-AMittal-20120510.pdf
Now if the GAO had only listened to the USGS who are subject experts in this field instead of the oil/gas lobbies who supplied info to them:
"The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently (2011) completed an assessment of in-place oil shale resources, regardless of grade, in the Eocene Green River Formation of the Greater Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming, northwestern Colorado, and northeastern Utah. Green River Formation oil shale also is present in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado and in the Uinta Basin of eastern Utah and western Colorado, and the results of these assessments are published separately. No attempt was made to estimate the amount of oil that is economically recoverable because there has not yet been an economic method developed to recover the oil from Green River Formation oil shale."
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3063/
crack?
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This is a dilemma but I think we know the answer, let the hundreds of billions in tax income for the government go, we must kill oil and press on with green! What's more important, tax revenue or developing green energy???
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