USMC, you're right, it's not shale oil, I misread your link. However, it's not cheap-to-extract oil, either, or anything that wasn't already known. The only reason anyone's taking a look at it now is because oil prices have risen to the point that it can now be extracted at a profit. That doesn't do us much good, though, because we're still out of cheap oil.

Nuclear power -- not to start, no. It may come to that eventually, but it's way down the list of the best ways to produce energy, because of the very high capital cost, long development time, and environmental concerns. It is better than fossil fuels, though, so if we exhaust other means, then we may have to turn to nuclear.

The place to start is with improved efficiency. We currently have an overall energy efficiency of approximately 10%. That means that of every 10 units of energy we produce, 9 are thrown away and only 1 actually used. It would not be that difficult to increase our efficiency rating to 40%, and if we did we would effectively quadruple the value of the energy we produce.

If we did that, we might well be able to supply all our needs without nuclear power. But as I said, if not, then as a last resort nuclear is still better than fossil-fuels.