Oil Shale

A key national park beloved by hikers, bikers and outdoor enthusiasts is threatened by an experimental oil shale extraction plan. Area residents rally to save their park, citing a lack of water, the unproven nature of oil shale production, a lack of commercial viability.
Sound vaguely familiar?

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel on Sunday did a good job of painting the big picture in terms of the massive scale of energy resources under the arid ground of western Colorado and eastern Utah in an area dubbed “Energy Alley.”
The 150-mile stretch of Interstate 70 between Rifle, Colo., and Green River, Utah, sits atop [...]

Estonia, a nation ravaged by unchecked oil shale production and its environmental consequences, according to international studies, has finally hit on a greener use for fields of oil shale ash.
According to the Baltic Course, described as an “International Internet Magazine (Baltic State news & analytics),” an Estonia energy company wants to erect more than 300 [...]

Farmers in the Rocky Mountain states of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico unveiled an interesting ad buy over the weekend, praising Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for his more measured approach to oil shale research and production than the previous administration.

Some water experts warn the upper Colorado River is an endangered species if current residential growth patterns and water consumption patterns continue along the state’s Front Range, and they’re increasingly concerned proposed energy production on the Western Slope will accelerate its demise.

“I hope America can’t come here and trash out my country here to support the current [oil shale] industry,” said one Routt County commissioner.

Even as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was announcing new environmental reforms for the next round of oil shale research and development leases on public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming on Tuesday, proponents of the unproven fuel source were touting their progress at an oil shale confab in Golden.
Hosted by the Colorado School of Mines [...]

Conservation groups and at least one federal agency are raising serious questions about a water grab for a proposed nuclear power plant near Green River, Utah, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is already on the record questioning the proposed leasing of up to 24,000 acre feet of the [...]

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday called on his department’s inspector general to investigate so-called midnight oil shale leasing regulations issued in the waning days of the Bush administration. “We want to avoid the booms and busts of the past,” said Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado, referring to a devastating oil shale bust on the Western Slope in the 1980s. “We want to ensure the potential development is done in a way that is environmentally appropriate.”

The Los Angeles Times continues to follow the e-mail trail in the 11th-hour Bush administration bid to lock in low royalty rates for highly speculative, as-yet-unproven oil shale production in the Green River Formation of northwest Colorado, eastern Utah and southwest Wyoming.

Even as Gov. Bill Ritter was touting Colorado’s “New Energy Economy” at the 5th annual Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas-USA conference in Denver Tuesday evening, he was being blasted from the right for his gas-guzzling aeronautical habits and failure to promote the state’s oil shale production.