I have email! In my inbox yesterday, I had been forwarded an email by a friend purportedly telling about the exciting new discovery of the Bakken Formation in the Dakotas and Montana where, this email claimed, the United States had more oil than "the entire Middle East!" Further, it made the astonishing claim, allegedly backed up by the US Geological Survey, that this formation contains 500 billion barrels of oil, which would not only end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and give Americans their light sweet crude at "just $16 PER BARREL!" But wait, there's more! The deposit will fuel the economy "for 2041 years." Here I can only assume that the unknown author meant we would have enough until 2041. Sounds good, doesn't it? Smells like snake oil to me. The fact-checking website Snopes.com kicks this one to the curve. The Bakken Formation is, in fact, real, but the projections given are, naturally, vastly inflated. Given that, according to Snopes, ...
Occasional author. Lover of coffee.