The time to invest in future technologies is right now before we run out of time.

The perfect fuel would be something like this:

- non destructive to the environment
- plentiful or easy to create or get
- renewable
- non destructive to life
- same or better output as fossil fuels

I asked this before on another post, what propulsion methods do you suppose UFOs use?

Troy

From looking at the article, it sounds like a pipe dream. It's known that this type of shale will produce oil and the technology sounds legit, but the mbbl quote sounds outlandish. What will the cost of running the heaters per barrel be? Shell is pushing another pipe dream of H2 stations, another eneregy source best used when produced, not pumped by consumers with knit slacks causing sparks and blowing up a city block! Kudos for shell for trying to find alternative sources, but show us the cost analasys, not the ones shown to investors to pump your stock portfolio.

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cybertroy,

UFOs run on smoke.

That is why they spin so fast and have wonderful jazzy flight patterns.
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I found some reported propulsion methods of UFOs on another post, electromagnetic propulsion being one. The reason I mention it is, maybe they have better and cleaner methods of propelling objects? And some of those technologies could possibly be used on our planet. I'm not so sure those things are running off Gasoline.

I think profit can allways be made. But it's kind of like comparing the huge profits of drugs with the profits of nutritional supplements, as far as fuel profits. I would hope that the oil companies would invest in replacements to oil. I guess the bottom line is we need something cleaner and renewable anyway. Heck if oil is running out, then they are going to have to have a solution, if they are to continue to profit. They could simply change from the "oil company" to the "fuel company," and because the new fuel may not be as profitable in itself as oil, they could invest in the new engine or propulsion methods and profit that way for example. If oil does run out, and they haven't invested somewhere else, then the oil companies will certainly perish. Maybe the oil companies should perish (or at least get the greedy people out of the oil companies), and make way for more responsible, forward thinking, individuals who will rise and bring about better and cleaner fuels.

Troy

The rock is slowly warmed to as high as 700 degrees, causing the shale to expand. This releases the oil trapped in the layers of shale. It is then is pumped to the surface in staggering amounts -- one million barrels an acre.

[...]

Shell says there are still some technical issues to sort out but the company is hoping to start production in 2010.

This sounds like a big "if". How do they propose to pump the oil out? Is this hydro-exctraction as has been used before? I thought that had its own drawbacks.

It'll take them five years to solve their technical issues. Why is their timeline so long? What are they working on during that time?

Way back in 1967 Herman Kahn, then a well-known futurologist of the Hudson Institute, a think tank, & Anthony J. Wiener, already sounded very optimistic about those bituminous soils in their book titled The Year 2000: A Framework For Speculation On the Next Thirty-Three Years (The Macmillan Company, N.Y.)...

"It is said that the bituminous soils of Colorado, Wyoming & Utah constitute the largest oil reserves in the world. It is estimated that they hold around two billion barrels, that is, five times the known world reserves, & 70 times the proven reserves of the U.S. (...) If the extraction process can be made to be economically feasible then not only could the U.S. cover its domestic needs but they could also become an oil-exporting country."
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It takes a ton of rock to produce 1 barrel of oil, and production costs are about $30 a barrel. Side effects - Strip mining, pollution, and high water usage. That is why they are still researching this and many oil companies don't even do that.

Originally posted by cybertroy
The time to invest in future technologies is right now before we run out of time.

The perfect fuel would be something like this:

- non destructive to the environment
- plentiful or easy to create or get
- renewable
- non destructive to life
- same or better output as fossil fuels

I asked this before on another post, what propulsion methods do you suppose UFOs use?

Troy

yeah and i would like to win the lottery too! if you think the oil companies or the oil producing nations are going to ever let anyone replace oil, you have to be out of touch with reality. the only way they will do it, is when THEY have CONTROL of the alternate fuel. their goal is to make as much money as possible, and they could give a d-mn who it hurts. and one other thing...all countries in the world, that have nationalized their oil companies have far lower gas and diesel prices. but nobody in this country wants that to happen because that is...SOCIALISM!!!...oooohhh... and we can't have that!!! so...quit your whining and keep paying higher and higher prices for everything that moves with gas or diesel. oh, and as far as a shortage? have you driven past a shell or chevron lately?...full tanks and hardly anyone buying gas. yup...a real shortage alright. what a crock.