Oil Shale News

By: Cara Bayles

From: Daily Comet

BILOXI, Miss. — Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum tapped a chunk of oil shale against the podium at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center.

“Thanks to the Marcellus shale and the Utica shale, we’re seeing our economy growing again, and we’ve seen a tremendous reduction in natural-gas prices,” the former Pennsylvania senator told the audience of hundreds. “It’s pretty remarkable to think that you can get oil out of this, but through that hydraulic fracturing you can.”

The show-and-tell moment occurred during the first-ever Gulf Coast Energy Summit, organized by the Thibodaux-based Gulf Economic Survival Team and the Consumer Energy Alliance.

From: Green Prophet

While Israeli activists fight oil shale exploration, Jordan announces plans to explore oil shale next door.

While activists continue to fight against oil shale testing in Israel because of its potentially harmful environmental and social impacts, on the other side of the Dead Sea, Jordan has just announced its intention to explore oil-shale without any opposition from within its borders.

The Hashemite Kingdom sits on the third largest reserve of oil shale deposits, but the technology necessary to extract this fossil fuel safely is still undergoing rigorous testing in the United States and remains deeply controversial among environmentalists. Perhaps spurred on by chronic energy shortages, Jordan intends to go where no one else has been.