Christian Science Monitor: Could Estonia's oil shale bolster Europe's energy security?

The SUV ride down the steep incline in Estonia's newest oil shale mine, the first to be built since the Soviet era, is bumpy.

At 105 feet below ground, Larissa Puhilas gets out. She inspects the soft brown rock that's just collapsed, after miners drilled and blasted a limestone wall to release the brown sedimentary oil shale. Big conveyer belts will bring it outside to be crushed and burned to produce power or further processed into oil.

An oil shale enrichment specialist, Ms. Puhilas is a player in one of Estonia's most important – and controversial – industries. Unlike shale oil, the liquid obtained by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) miles underground, Estonia's oil shale is a sedimentary rock containing kerogen found close to the surface. Estonia is the only country in the world whose energy sector depends on oil shale. In fact, practically all its electricity comes from the rock.
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