For kat/katlaughing: Apology accepted. I have lived in the Colrado River drainage area most of my life.

Most of the shale developement was going to be underground mining. The big problem is the disposal of the waste. They experimented by covering the piles with topsoil and reseeding them with native vegetation. I do not know what the results were. One of the problems with not having enough petroleum is people buy cars that are not fuel efficient, such as SUV's (which the majority of people who own them don't need them and do not know how to drive them).