The Bakken Formation like the Pieance Basin Oil Shale holds great promise for development. Price and technology have been the big considerations in the past when exploitation of these resource’s have been discussed. Now, it seems that the price of oil is such that cost effectiveness may well be past the point of profitability. The opportunity costs involved take on many faces though. Mostly hunters and fishermen, but also ranchers, farmers, and those that care for the environment.
My Fiance who is a Geological Engineer and Geo-chemist has told me that the technology is now available that would allow extraction with minimal environmental impact. That, however does not include the refinery, or some portions of necessary pipelines. Those two issues are pretty troublesome to someone like me.
Then we get to the big money rumor mills that say there are impending finds in the north of Russia and in Indonesia. If true, the American Dollar will be in some rather serious trouble. Those folks in other places that are in fact propping up America through purchasing T-Bonds and such will in all probability stop doing so. Making a switch to alternative energy sources will be expensive enough without having to deal with a near worthless currency. This is where International and Political Economics come into play with a vengeance.
The flip side is that if we can rapidly build alternative energy sources as well as use the oil that we have available we should be able to weather the storm, so to speak. We also need to have a President that has the inner courage to reverse President Nixion’s policy that took the United States off the gold standard.
I believe that we are indeed heading into a rather rough row to hoe.
Conservative Libertarian Outpost 