>>7633707
Fracking is bad, mmkay
Experiments in fracking (fracturing rock deep in the crust) started in the early 70's on Grand Mesa and near Rifle CO just east of Grand Junction CO, where the new BLM headquarters are moving to.
They would drop nukes down a hole 1000's of feet, set it off and create a glass dome (salt dome), which would then fill up with oil. It worked, except the oil extracted was loaded with radiation, and recent tests show it's STILL loaded with radiation. So this was abandoned, but the salt domes still exist.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2014/01/29/u-s-experimented-with-nuclear-fracking/#52ba849a5c9c
Then, in the early 1980s, the built a huge plant just off the Colorado River in Debeque Canyon just east of Grand Junction. The plant was a flop, it took too much energy and too much water, and produce very little oil..
Fast forward to around 2004-5. A method called MEOR (Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery) was introduced. It uses bacteria that ingests the oil (organic) and farts out CO2 and Methane. The pressure produced from this, crack the rock, and then the bacteria lace product is pulled out of the hole, filtered, and the bacteria laden water is put into holding ponds where Biocides are used to kill the bacteria. It doesn't work very good, and lots of this bacteria laden water is let back into the clean water. Also, the oil still has bacterial remnants in it, which produce VOC's, which creates volatile crude which is prone to explosion. Hence, they have to combine the fracked crude with high quality normal extracted oil to get usable gasoline and natural gas products.