Originally Posted by MiserDD

Oil Shale is where our future oil will come from and all we have to do to see an immediate drop in oil prices is for congress to allow immediate drilling.

A 2005 estimate set the total world resources of oil shale at 411 gigatons — enough to yield 2.8 to 3.3 trillion barrels (520 km³) of shale oil. This exceeds the world's proven conventional oil reserves, estimated at 1.317 trillion barrels (209.4×109 m3), as of 1 January 2007. The largest deposits in the world are found in the United States in the Green River basin, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; about 70% of this resource is located on federally owned or managed land.[22] Deposits in the United States constitute 62% of world resources; together, the United States, Russia and Brazil account for 86% of the world's resources in terms of shale oil content. These figures are considered tentative, as several deposits have not yet been explored or analyzed.

Fear in the Middle East that the world could turn to the US for all their energy needs would force them to immediately flood the market with cheep oil to immediately lower the price and keep the world focused on the middle ease as major source of energy. Our own environmentalist would point out that due to the drastic drop in oil prices there was no longer a need to start shale development.

Not to worry, congress just voted last month to again keep drilling out of this area. Hillary and Obama both took a break from their hectic in-fighting to cast their votes against the exploitation of these oil shale fields.