Houston Chronicle: Along the western slope of the Rocky Mountains lies a possible path toward energy independence. The world’s largest deposit of oil shale is hidden here, beneath a landscape dotted by pinyon pines and twisted junipers. If the oil industry can learn how to extract oil and gas from the oil shale in a cost-effective manner, the United States could lay claim to oil reserves totaling, perhaps, 800 billion barrels – three times Saudi Arabia’s. With oil prices riding high and …