because Canada has large gas shale plays and tight gas sands, think woodbine shale and barnett shale.

quiteman is correct though. wind and solar cannot make up the gap if oil suddenly went away. I'd even be skeptical that the two combined could generate 20% of demand. but regardless, it's not how much "alternative energy" can be generated, it's about how much and when it can be generated. Wind and solar cannot be throttled like hydrocarbons can. Once they're on, they're on and that's it. Contrast that to natural gas that can be stored, transported from place to place, and converted to electricity when, where and in the amounts needed.

That's a capability that wind and solar don't have. The only alt energy I know of that has that capabilty/flexibility is nuclear.

oooooh, I said the 'N' word...

It is being refined. But it is being stored. The US has a contract to buy oil from the Middle East and to not use its own oil.

That contract came with the agreement that they would only sell oil for American Dollars, which makes the Dollar the reserve currency. In order to buy oil, you must have dollars.

All that is about to change.

The Bakken is nice, but it isn't that nice.

From Wiki:

The Bakken formation /ˈbɑːkən/ is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying about 200,000 square miles (520,000 km2) of the subsurface of the Williston Basin, underlying parts of Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan. The formation was initially described by geologist J.W. Nordquist in 1953.[2] The formation is entirely in the subsurface, and has no surface outcrop. It is named after Henry Bakken, a farmer in Williston, North Dakota who owned the land where the formation was initially discovered.[3]

Besides being a widespread prolific source rock for oil when thermally mature, there are also significant producible reserves of oil within the Bakken formation itself.[4] Oil was first discovered within the Bakken in 1951, but efforts to produce it have reached difficulties historically. An April 2008 USGS report estimated the amount of technically recoverable oil using technology readily available at the end of 2007 within the Bakken Formation at 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels (680,000,000 m3), with a mean of 3.65 billion.[5] The state of North Dakota also released a report that month which estimated that there are 2.1 billion barrels (330,000,000 m3) of technically recoverable oil in the Bakken.[6] Various other estimates place the total reserves, recoverable and non-recoverable with today's technology, at up to 24 billion barrels. The most recent estimate places the figure at 18 billion barrels.[7]

New rock fracturing technology available starting in 2008 has caused a recent boom in Bakken production. By the end of 2010 oil production rates had reached 458,000 barrels (72,800 m3) per day outstripping the capacity to ship oil out of the Bakken.[8][9] The production technology gain has led a veteran industry insider to declare that the USGS estimates are too low.[10]

If BP or Exxon didn't kill all the fish and wildlife nothing will.

Must admit tho, the chems they used on the spill are creating some pretty interesting looking variations to them, tumors and all sorts of other odd parasites now.

Enter fracking.... even more dangerous with flamable water and exploding reservoirs!

Oil and Gas Groups Fighting Longmont Fracking Ban with Deep Pockets

http://kunc.org/post/oil-and-gas-groups-fighting-longmont-fracking-ban-deep-pockets

The US is crazy for not developing nuclear power. It is still the safest way to make electricity. Large transport and government vehicles could be converted to compressed natural gas (CNG) quickly with the infrastructure grown to accept civilian vehicles. The combination of nuke powered electricity and CNG vehicles (including hybrids) would make the US energy independent as soon as the plants were built (about four or five years). There would still be plenty of petroleum to run older vehicles but at about 1/3 the cost to operate, CNG vehicles would rule the highways. Plug-in hybrids would cost even less to run.

Obama promised to "go nuclear" when elected. He did nothing.




See the wide range of vehicles that run on CNG.

Numerous manufacturers offer factory-built natural gas trucks, step-vans, transit buses and school buses, there are fewer options for consumers who need light-duty cars, vans and pickup trucks — but the market is starting to turn. Honda Civic Natural Gas. Not surprisingly, the Civic is in high demand. It has been joined in the market by CNG versions of the Chevrolet Silverado 2500, Dodge Ram 2500 CNG and Ford F-250 pickups, as well as Chevy Savana vans and Ford Transit and Transit Connect vans. More options are coming soon.

Outside of purchasing one of these vehicles, American consumers have two other options — converting their existing vehicles to run on natural gas or purchasing from a government auction of pre-owned fleet vehicles.

Public transportation across the country has been using CNG for decades. Currently, about 12-15% of public transit buses in the U.S. run on natural gas (either CNG or LNG – liquefied natural gas). That number is growing, with nearly one in five buses on order today slated to run on natural gas. States with the highest consumption of natural gas for transportation are California, New York, Texas, Georgia, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.
CNG on the Rise

Consumer use of the fuel is most prevalent in California and New York. Utah is catching up fast, with the most CNG stations per capita and more than 5,000 CNG vehicles on the roads. With a $3,000 state tax incentive credit and CNG prices at about 86¢ per gasoline gallon equivalent, it's no wonder that even the governor drives a CNG vehicle.

Many other states have federal vehicle tax credits in place to provide incentives for drivers to purchase CNG vehicles or to convert their vehicles, if it's one of the limited number that qualify, to run on CNG fuel.

http://www.cngnow.com/vehicles/pages/information.aspx

If you "go nuclear" and natural catastrophic earth changes take place, they might have a devastating effect on nuclear plants. While solar power and wind power are only being played around with, they could be utilized in new housing projects.

Homes that can support themselves completely with solar and wind power CAN BE CREATED. But the Elite want to make their money selling oil, gas and electricity.

They want profits, they don't develop energy for the good of the people and life on planet earth.

What is wrong with people?

don't have enough Acreage to provide more than about 20% of the stationary Energy-need with Wind and Solar!

Wouldn't it be great if da' gubament was to give grants to folks who owned their homes to install US made solar panels lined with pipe to heat water?

Folks with over 2 acres can put in their own wind power. Wouldn't it be great if Gubament would grant money fer installing US made wind power machines?

or maybe just get the Heck out the way and let people do!

Furthermore, domestic consumption is minimal when compared to industrial and commercial usage.

Industrial and commercial usage would need to start conserving energy instead of wasting it.

And they do waste a lot of it.

Perhaps, but that won't necessarily bring industrial and commercial usage in line with domestic. Introducing a Carbon Tax was intended as an incentive for curbing industrial usage, but the cost was merely passed on to the end consumer. So, reality remains.

Carbon tax ... don't get me started!

My point is, they aren't doing enough to encourage or make alternative energy convenient, or easy for the consumer. There is too much greed and they want to have a monopoly on energy.

Trust me, I live under it and it's phucking retarded.

I read an article in a local Pueblo newspaper about a dispute over whether a lap dance was taxable as apposed to ballet dancers.

Oh brother.