Royal Dutch Shell is in talks with Jordan’s Natural Resource Authority. They hope to develop some of Jordan’s oil shale resources to solve their 95% energy dependency. More at AFP.

Lots of people have been excited about oil shale several times in the past few decades. When oil prices go up gasoline is thrown on that fire and when prices fall people forget about them. Are they a viable resource or is their development going to cause more environmental problems than the oil is worth? More at the DeseretNews.com website.

Ken Salazar, a Democratic senator from Colorado has written “Oil Shale: Rush and Risk Bust” that appears in the Houston Chronicle and the Washington Post. If you want to read a quite different perspective from a Republican senator from Utah there is one by Bob Bennett in the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Posted online by Brian Cardott of the Oklahoma Geological Survey is “Overview of Unconventional Energy Resources of Oklahoma”. This is a PDF file presentation that covers: coalbed methane, gas shales, oil shales, tight gas and ultra-deep reservoirs, and oil (tar) sands.

Queensland Energy Resources has proposed an oil shale mine in North Queensland and Greenpeace plans to protest the impact that the mine will have on tourism, the environment and local residents. The story is on TheAge.com.au website.

An article in the Salt Lake City Tribune casts lots of doubts on oil shale becoming an important contributor to our energy supplies anytime soon. Lots of people remail excited about it.

In his remarks about lifting the Executive ban on offshore drilling, President Bush proposed opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling and allowing oil shale leasing on Federal Lands in the Green River Basin area of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. More in this New Republic article.