American drillers in Utah and Colorado are currently poking into a massive shale deposit in order to try and find a way to unlock the massive amounts of oil reserves hidden inside it. It is believed that the contents “equals the entire world’s proven oil reserves.”

Both the US Government Accountability Office and the private industry estimate the amount of oil recoverable to be three trillion barrels. Roger Day, vice president for operations for American Shale Oil (AMSO):

In the past 100 years –  in all of human history – we have consumed one trillion barrels of oil. There are several times that much here.

A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) also predicts that the US will become the world’s largest oil producer by 2020. That flood of oil can have major implications for the US economy as well as the country’s foreign policy which has been based on a growing scarcity of oil.

But not everyone shares the enthusiasm. According to the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) Executive Vice President, Brian Jennings, media headlines disregard the costs consumers and the planet will bear in the long run.

The report clearly states oil will be more expensive, more damage will be done to the environment, and OPEC will end up controlling more than half of the world’s oil by 2035. Isn’t it ironic that some of the same interest groups and lawmakers who are attacking America’s ethanol industry and calling for repeal of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) are also now seemingly blind to the consequences of fracking our way to energy independence.

[Source: ABC]