Oil Shale News

From: Sacramento Bee

JUNEAU, Alaska — Sen. Joe Paskvan is holding a town hall meeting in Fairbanks Thursday onNorth Slope shale oil potential.

Paskvan is co-chair of the Senate Resources Committee, but this won’t be a committee hearing. Paskvan plans to host the panel discussion and meeting.

The president of Great Bear Petroleum, vice chancellor of research at University of Alaska Fairbanks and director of the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center are scheduled to give presentations.

According to a news release, the presentations and discussion will focus on issues including the shale oil potential on the North Slope, what challenges associated with development can be expected and how Fairbanks can benefit as much as possible economically from any development.

By Stephanie M. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle

A nearly 18,000-acre stretch of land extending from California’s Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley is the setting for a brewing debate over an oil-extraction method that has little governmental oversight.

The land, which spans Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties, rests on a large chunk of the Monterey Shale, a formation of underground minerals long eyed by the energy industry for its potential to yield billions of barrels of oil.