Canada is in the middle of a quiet oil boom

And what could be better than doing business north of the border? Doing it south of the Canadian border — in the U.S. 

Inspired by the success of the tar sands, Gov. Ritter and the task force are looking into a long-forgotten source of oil in his own home state of Colorado — oil locked up not in sand but in a rock called oil shale. The task force concluded that by 2035, oil shale could contribute up to 7 million barrels of oil a day — a third of America's oil needs. 

Oil shale looks pretty much like any other rock except for one thing: oil shale burns.  That's because it's rich in a substance called kerogen, which if left alone, would after millions of years eventually turn into the traditional oil that's pumped from traditional wells.  But heating it up speeds up the process and turns this black rock into black gold — oil.

Shell is at the forefront of the potential new American oil boom. The company has spent some $200 million on oil shale— more money shale than on any other research.

“It's like every good investment,” said Straub. “You're going to have to invest something at the front end to realize the value of that investment over time.”

Shell scientists say they may very well have found a solution to the problem of converting oil shale rock into light crude — the most valuable kind of fuel — by pumping hot water deep into oil shale deposits.

“If we go forward with oil shale, it could be the biggest commercial development in the history of the state of Colorado,” said Ritter.

But no one's building boomtown casinos here just yet. Colorado went down this road before, only to be disappointed. Back during the last oil crisis, in the early 80s, Exxon and other companies tried to tap oil shale in Colorado.  But when they couldn't figure out an efficient way to extract the oil, they pulled the plug.

“And I mean, they pulled out in a day,” said Ritter. “Everybody up there who was around in 1982 remembers that experience and I think understands why we are so stubborn about going forward in a measured and really a responsible way in terms of the mining of oil shale.”

Perhaps the biggest concern is that an oil shale boom could cramp Colorado's style as a wilderness playground and harm the state's fragile ecosystem.

“There's so much we don't know,” said Ritter. “We don't know the impact on air, the impact on groundwater.  Because at the end of the day those are the very concerns we have with the development of oil shale.”

Judging by the oil sands experience in Alberta, oil shale proponents have their work cut out for them.  Entire tracts of pristine forests have been cleared to make way for strip mining of this oil-rich sand.

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