"Of course the political obstacles to development and recovery...

"Of course the political obstacles to development and recovery of shale oil need to be removed..."


I don't think that removed is the answer... The fact is that extraction of shale oil is seriously experimental... I read a recent National Geographic story about the expansion of the shale oil industry in North Dakota and it was pretty eye opening.

There is massive expansion and absolutely zero structure to oversee any of it.. The companies are responsible for monitoring where there pipes are and they barely even keep track of it (oh, they keep track of the ones that flow... but the hundreds or thousands that didn't? who knows where they are...)

Solar power... Does anyone seriously doubt that the middle of Australia doesn't have enough solar energy to power the entire country?

Yes - I know it's a massive investment... But so was the snowy hydro at the time...

I know solar panels aren't there yet. But that's a minor problem. Whatever improvements we make in solar research, the entire supporting infrastructure will be the same. Assuming we have 5X better solar panels in 20 years, we just need to make them and replace them.

I think it's past time we had a national conversation about taking advantage of our massive solar resources.