Bush Administration Proposes ‘Fire Sale’ of Rocky Mountains for Oil Shale Development
On Tuesday, the Bush administration moved to accelerate oil-shale development across the Rocky Mountain West. Along with calls to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling, and open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, Tuesday’s release of proposed rules for shale exploration (pdf) by the Bureau of Land Management was merely another shot across the bow in the political blame game over $4-per-gallon gas.
According to Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, shale deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming could provide 800 billion barrels of oil, enough to meet U.S. demand at current levels “for 110 years.”
But the Interior Department is limited in what it can do. Language inserted in a spending bill by Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) bars the department from issuing final rules on oil-shale development. Though the moratorium is set to expire this October, Sen. Salazar said on a Denver radio station Wednesday that it would probably be extended for another year, so that the issue of oil shale development could be given a much closer look. Salazar said:
“The administration is trying to set the stage for a last-minute fire sale of commercial oil-shale leases in western Colorado, despite the fact that we are still years away from knowing if the technologies for developing oil shale on a commercial scale are even viable.”
Each barrel could require 1 to 3 barrels of water to produce
Tens of millions upon millions of people all over the southwest rely on water from the Colorado for everything from growing crops to meeting drinking water needs, making it one of the most heavily used and managed water systems in the United States.
One study done at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (Wilson et al.: 2006) projected that it would take 105 to 315 million gallons per day to produce 2.5 million barrels of oil per day from shale. The authors also projected that an industry that size also would result in a regional population growth of 433,000 people, requiring another 58 million gallons per day.
Shell not in a hurry to develop oil-shale
Shell Exploration & Production Co. is working an oil-shale project on three 160-acre parcels in Colorado but the company seems to recognize that the technology to squeeze billions of gallons of oil from the rocks of the Rockies is not high on the company’s list of priorities. According to the Denver Post:
“The company is two years into its 10-year research-and-development leases. Shell will make a decision on commercial leasing closer to the end of that decade, [Shell spokesperson Tracy] Boyd said…The company won’t be ready for commercial leasing until probably 2015, Boyd said.
So, what’s the rush to hand out these oil leases now? Even the BLM report states that “currently, there is no oil-shale industry and the oil-shale extractive technology is still in its rudimentary stages.”
The lack of a domestic oil-shale industry makes it purely a speculative endeavor to project the development of the technology necessary to extract oil-shale, the future demand for oil-shale leases, and the costs of developing those resources.
After another day of falling oil prices, the hurried rush to hand out oil shale leases for hundreds of thousands of acres of the Rocky Mountain West is merely another knee-jerk reaction from a Bush administration that is struggling to gain political favor in an election year. But that begs the question - who’s favor are Republicans trying to gain?
Despite what Republicans would have you believe, this election will be about much more than gas prices. And if Republican strategists think otherwise, they’re in for a big surprise in November.
Related Posts:
- “Bush Lifts Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling - Why it Matters and Why it Doesn’t”
- “McCain Calls for More Offshore Drilling - What Else Would he Say in Houston?”
- “Billions of Barrels Under the Bakken Shale”
- “Offshore Drilling Ban Opens Door for Other Domestic Oil Options”
Photo Credit: dsearls via flickr Under a Creative Commons License
Sources: Denver Post; Salt Lake Tribune
800 billion barrels doesn’t sound so great if it takes 4 or more barrels to get one barrel of oil to the market.
I honestly cannot believe how short-sighted some of you are. The obsession with fossil fuels is ridiculous. It will take a minimum of 7 years before we see any results from oil shale development, ANWR drilling, or off-shore drilling. In the end, this is like putting a bandaid on a gunshot wound. The federal government should have the foresight to fund clean, renewable energies.
P.S. I’m from Colorado, and I’ll be damned if I let them turn some of the most picturesque landscapes in the world into a temporary into another wasted opportunity.
@chrispc88
Most of your arguments are just collections of generalized statements that don’t fit together. Little fact to back your presumptions on power either.
Most interesting is how you attacked the idea of using public transit, where possible, and living near where you work. In your case, moving closer to where you work could mean the difference between having your current 50 mile round trip (13,000 miles in your large, not so efficient vehicle) and a 10 or 20 mile round trip (2,600 to 5,200 miles annually).
Farmers and blue collar workers moving away from their place of work and into cities would be counter to the whole idea.
And saying you could do something to help make things better, but won’t because you’re “only one person” is exactly how things stay the same/get worse instead of getting better. Now you sound like the one who wants others to work to solve your problems for you.
As for shale, this is a technology that is still experimental. Companies haven’t even committed to using shale to produce oil. It’s speculation on your part that it would be profitable, and plans to offer substantially cheaper leases for development could be seen as a subsidy (lower leases mean more taxes).
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