U.S. Backs Squeezing Oil From a Stone---(fed.lands opening to industry)

[rodeodance]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sh...
U.S. Backs Squeezing Oil From a Stone

# Seeing potential in shale, Interior is opening federal lands to industry. But extraction methods are unproven, and in Colorado some see risks.

By Julie Cart, Times Staff Writer

MAHOGANY TEST SITE, Colo. — Tucked into a ravine and hidden behind ridges standing like stony sentinels is the site of Shell Oil Co.'s ultra-experimental, highly anticipated 30-year project to unlock oil from vast underground beds of rock.

Here, on this sweeping plateau in western Colorado, the Bush administration has fixed its hopes for the next big energy boom: oil shale, which the U.S. Department of the Interior praises as an "energy resource with staggering potential." Members of Congress have described the region as the Saudi Arabia of oil shale.

Legislation recently signed by President Bush instructs the Interior Department to lease 35% of the federal government's oil shale lands within the next year; provides tax breaks to the industry; reduces the ability of states and local communities to influence where projects are located; and compresses multiple, lengthy environmental assessments into a single analysis good for 10 years.

Oil shale is immature rock that, left alone, would require millions of years of natural heating to produce oil.
more

[freethought]

1. Oil, oil , oil, oil,!!! FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!

I could say something many orders of maginitude more profane. But I am censoring myself.

This is clearly what the U.S. should try to avoid it only puts us in deeper to fossil fuels. Long term, this is not an option. Where are the efforts for alternative fuels and energy? THIS DAMNED ADMINISTRATION IS BEYOND DESCRIPTION!!! F__K THEM ALL TO HELL!!!

Grrrr!! Okay, I'm done now.

[rodeodance]

2. looky here---the resisdents do not like it either.

....Longtime residents have watched boom and bust cycles of gas, oil and oil shale come and go. They've seen legions of workers troop into small towns, snatch up rental housing and fill schools, hospitals and sewers beyond capacity.

Many residents of western Colorado still remember "Black Sunday," or May 2, 1982, when oil giant Exxon announced the closure of its $5-billion Colony shale project in Garfield County and laid off 2,200 workers, after producing hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil, seldom recovering the costs.

A year later, property foreclosures in Grand Junction and Mesa County were more than four times their 1980 numbers, and bankruptcies doubled. Local officials fear a reprise.

The region is only now beginning to recover and has redrawn its future as a popular place for retirees, hikers and hunters.

[rodeodance]

3. too much valuable water is used in the extraction process!!!!1

......Smith said that new technology notwithstanding, getting oil out of the ground was likely to consume unacceptable amounts of groundwater and place drinking water at risk for tens of thousands of people.

The process uses as much as three barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced. The Rand report notes that "all high-grade Western oil shale resources lie in the Colorado River drainage," a source of supply for millions of people in the arid West.

Another report, prepared last year for the Department of Energy, says, "Water may still be a constraining factor. Water requirements for the infrastructure and socioeconomic demands could place a burden on the neighboring communities, which could see tremendous growth as a result of a new oil shale industry in the region."

O'Connor agreed that water issues were the thorniest problems for the company to resolve. He said that Shell had purchased nearby water rights and would recycle as much groundwater as possible.......

[fshrink]

5. Yes, that's accurate. Also a way

to have the people foot the bill (higher water cost).

[daleo]

4. Here's the key bit, I think

"But some experts warn that the process could use more energy than it yields..."

"Shell's process consumes enormous amounts of energy. One report projects that a single Colorado oil shale lease site would require the largest coal-fired power plant in the region just to run the heating-freezing infrastructure."

[phusion]

7. That is absolutely insane!

Building and running huge energy production centers just to extract a little more energy in the form of oil?

[Lorien]

8. If we were spending a fraction of what we spend murdering and pillaging

in Iraq on alternative energy development, this nation could once again be a world leader in technical innovation!

Disgusting.

[pinto]

6. kick.