Artificial distinctions
I always love how people who hate oil make all these artificial distinctions about oil types. In the end it doesn't matter as long as refined products are available at prices people are willing to pay. What's really going on here is that all these people are looking for any excuse to move us away from oil because it doesn't fit their vision of a green utopia.
All the prices cited in the article are under the current price for a barrel of oil (about $100), with the possible exception of arctic offshore and oil shale. The others are profitable at prices that translate to pump prices for gasoline at around $3 or less. History shows we can easily get by with those kinds of prices.
Lots of other critical resources such as iron and copper have long since exhausted their highest grade sources. We are having to use much more low-grade sources for these and as a result pay more for them. Yet somehow we get by. I don't hear any anti-fossil fuel people complain about "peak iron" or worry about the end of these resources.
Finally, we do own the greens a word of thanks. In the past, their actions in the US have artificially put off-limits all sorts of oil such as offshore and ANWAR that is now relatively easy to tap. No other country in the world has voluntarily put off-limits such immense resources. Once the US comes to its senses, this oil will be a huge boon for the US -- and the federal deficit. Better to pay royalties to the federal government than ship our money to Venezuela.
