Letter to the Editor: Oil shale or “tight oil”

Dear Editor:
Despite all the media attention given to oil shale and oil from shale, or “tight oil,” there exists a great deal of confusion about the two.
Oil shale is a petroleum precursor that requires cooking to get the oil and natural gas out (e.g. Green River oil shale deposits in the Western United States).
Tight oil is crude oil stored in shale and requires modern drilling and recovery techniques to get it out…