The fact of the matter is that government efforts at shale oil recovery bore a strong resemblance to NASA’s long string of failed launch vehicle projects, the most recent of which is SLS. The classic formula? Government spends hugely on contracts with big, established firms that are presumed to be “the experts” and it all comes to nothing after years of “it’s just around the corner” happy talk and billions in expenditure.

Hint – type “Parachute Creek, Colorado” into your favorite search engine. You will find that the U.S. government and Big Oil spent billions and more than a decade on dead-end technology for shale oil extraction based on either strip mining it or shaft mining it and cooking it to get the oil out. The technology that actually works – in situ hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) – was developed later by small, entrepreneurial firms on their own dime.