Oil-shale resource investigations of the U.S. Geological Survey

Abstract

The decade of the 1970's so far has been marked by a sharply increased dependence by the United States on foreign sources of energy. Although this dependence had been growing for the previous 20 years, it was made clearly visible to the American public by the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Since then, energy has remained a topic of public discussion and concern. The current imbalance between U.S. energy supply and demand and the generally recognized need to increase the domestic production of energy make it appropriate to review our present knowledge of U.S. mineral fuel resources--coal, oil, natural gas, oil shale, and uranium--which in 1975 provided 95 percent of the energy produced in the United States. These conditions also warrant a description of the research that is being done to improve our understanding of these resources, and to determine the effects on the environment of their development. This is one of four reports on the energy resource investigations being conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey to assess the Nation's coal, oil and gas, oil shale, and uranium and thorium resources. Two other reports provide information about the Geological Survey's programs for assessing the petroleum resources of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and for identifying the environmental factors that could affect their development. The description of the Geological Survey's oil-shale investigations is presented in this report in the context of the underlying socio-economic problem of expanding the domestic production of oil and gas while maintaining acceptable environmental standards. This orientation toward a national mission characterizes each segment of the Geological Survey's energy resources and marine geology programs. Readers who want information about the individual projects that comprise the Oil-Shale Program will find it in the appendices, which also include a bibliography. It is hoped that this report will give scientists, science administrators, and policy makers, both in government and in the private sector, as well as the general public, a better understanding of the relation of oil shale resources to the Nation's requirements for energy and of the importance of a carefully planned research program of resource assessment and environmental research on this future energy commodity.