An underground lakebed in Colorado that spans 17,000 square miles holds at least 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil. This is three times the amount of oil currently sitting in Saudi Arabia’s reserves.

Why hasn’t this oil been snatched up yet? Because it’s not crude oil (the liquid type that’s pumped out of the ground) but oil shale, a type of rock that’s rich in kerogen, a fossil fuel that can be converted into gasoline and diesel.

Royal Dutch Shell has invested nearly 30 years and hundreds of millions of dollars into discovering a process that would make the oil shale usable, and Harold Vinegar, Shell’s chief scientist, says he’s done it.

Using a new technology called In Situ Conversion Process, or ICP, Shell believes it can produce large quantities of oil -- anywhere from 2 million to 5 million barrels a day -- without damaging the local environment.

The oil, Shell says, would sell at around $30 a barrel, as opposed to current prices of nearly $90 a barrel.

The United States goes through close to 21 million barrels of oil a day, and imports about 10 million. So even at its peak levels, Colorado’s oil shale could not support the U.S. population. Still, the idea of being closer to “energy independence” is appealing to many (especially Shell).

Already, Shell has filed 200 oil shale patents and is waiting on approvals from Colorado and the U.S. Department of the Interior to begin commercial production (as over 80 percent of U.S. oil shale is on federally owned land).

The whole idea of drilling into a vast span of the United States’ natural environment, however, is concerning. There is the possibility that the oil could leach into ground water and contaminate drinking water for countless numbers of people.

The process also uses a lot of water to refine the oil and purify the natural gas, and in a region where water is already scare and fights over water break out often, this is a serious issue.

Oil companies are notoriously greedy, and my guess would be that even if Shell begins producing oil for $30 a barrel, that savings will not get passed on to you. The price of gas has shot up beyond $3 per gallon and the oil companies -- not the people who are selling oil to the oil companies -- have record profits.
 
Perhaps the solution is not to fight over the natural resources that are left, but to come up with a renewable fuel source that will be safe for the environment and your health -- such as cars with hybrid engines that run on tiny amounts of water.

• CNNMoney.com November 1, 2007