Shale oil the solution?

Is shale oil our salvation? I first heard about shale oil on a television news program. What the heck is this shale oil stuff anyway? According to Wikipedia, “oil shale extraction refers to the process in which kerogen, a mixture of organic chemical compounds found in oil shales, is converted into synthetic crude oil through the chemical process of pyrolysis. In this process, oil shale is heated in the absence of oxygen to a temperature at which oil shale is decomposed and kerogen is pyrolysed into a petroleum-like condensable shale oil—a form of non-conventional oil—and combustible shale gas (shale gas can also refer to gas occurring naturally in shales). The process also produces a solid residue in form of spent shale (char). Decomposition of oil shale begins at relatively low temperatures (300 °C (570 °F)), but proceeds more rapidly and more completely at higher temperature. What does all this mean? Well, to boil it down to my understanding, you see there are these rocks that have this oil in them…and we have tons and tons of these rocks available…and there’s a process we can use to get oil from the rocks..(If you have a “thirst” for more dry details about shale oil, check it out a wikipedia here.

Here’s some extracts of info from a site called shale oil now: “America has an Estimated 1 to 2 Trillion Barrels of oil locked in shale in the Midwest. That could be as much as 8 times the total proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. America could be energy independent within 5 years. (This is primarily in the Green River Formation, not the disputed Bakken Formation.) “Any alternatives to our oil economy are at least 30 years away (possibly never). While there are many ways of extending our oil supplies, and I vigorously support and promote all of them, we can not HOPE our way out of our energy challenges. You can’t run your car on a tank of HOPE. Suggested alternatives simply do not rise to meet the enormous quantity of energy we need. Alternatives are a drop in the bucket of what we need.” So what will it take to access this tremendous oil resource? I’m just learning about this alternative but will share info about it as I learn about it– it’s all part of posts I continue to write about alternative energy.