What If The World Changed?

Glenn Reynolds points us to the following, which is either a cold fusion level con or world changing:

Israel to produce synthetic oil from low quality shale at $17 a barrel (Leah Krauss, UPI, 11/7/06)

The Israeli process for producing energy from oil shale will cut its oil imports by one-third, and will serve as a guide for other countries with oil shale deposits, according to one company....

Oil shale is limestone rock that contains hydrocarbons, or fossil fuels -- about 20 percent of the amount of energy found in coal. Using the rock as a raw material and coating it with bitumen, a residue of the crude oil refining process, the company can produce natural gas, fuel, electricity, or a combination of the three.

I have to suspect that there's something shady about it -- news like this should be on the front pages in Second Coming type (hey, maybe this is how the media would cover the Messiah coming) -- but we'll know in a few short years.