http://www.examiner.com/a-1389682~Salazar_sponsors_bill_to_slow_down_oil_shale_development.html
Once again, democrats decide to be a part of the problem instead of
the solution. For the life of me I can't understand why they want
America to be weak.
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Salazar sponsors bill to slow down oil shale development
DENVER (Map, News) - Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said Tuesday that he
will introduce a bill to slow down moves toward commercial oil shale
development in the region.
His announcement came the same day that an amendment intended to speed
up oil shale development died in the Senate. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-
Colo., co-sponsored the amendment.
Salazar's proposal would provide another year to analyze a plan to
open nearly 2 million acres of federal land to development in western
Colorado, eastern Utah and southwest Wyoming. It would allow a year
for development of a commercial leasing program after the analysis is
finished.
"We must remain vigilant and ensure a thoughtful approach to oil shale
development," Salazar said. "Oil shale development would have
significant impacts on the land and water on the Western Slope and all
of Colorado."
Federal officials and industry experts estimate that up to 1.8
trillion barrels of oil is trapped in the region's oil shale, or three
times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. Of that, roughly 800
billion barrels is considered recoverable.
The BLM's draft environmental review is taking a broad, or
"programmatic," look at potential development. The agency has said
site-specific analyses would be done as projects are proposed.
The 2005 federal energy bill set deadlines for reviewing potential
commercial development that the BLM has already missed.
Salazar is among the Colorado officials who've urged the federal
government to move cautiously on oil shale because of the potential
impacts. Last year, he successfully sponsored a one-year moratorium on
using federal funds to finalize regulations for commercial oil shale
development.
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter told the BLM in March that the agency's
draft analysis doesn't adequately address the potential impacts on
water and air quality, water supplies, human health or western
Colorado's economy. The document "is woefully inadequate in assessing
the needs and impacts of an industrial complex significantly greater
than the infrastructure that exists today," he said in a letter.
Ritter was scheduled to testify about oil shale before the U.S. Senate
Energy Committee Thursday.
Allard has said that Congress shouldn't prevent domestic energy
development that would reduce the country's reliance on foreign oil.
He joined other Republican senators in trying to repeal the one-year
ban on writing final regulations for commercial oil shale.
The amendment by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., was defeated Tuesday.
Attempts have been made off and on and for nearly a century to mine
oil from the region's shale. The shale contains kerogen, a precursor
to oil that wasn't buried deeply enough or naturally processed long
enough to complete the transformation.
Turning the shale to oil requires heating it above ground after
mining, or in the ground, a process called in situ or "in place."
The BLM approved federal leases for oil shale research and development
to three companies in Colorado and one in Utah.
The last wide-scale attempt to mine oil shale collapsed in the early
1980s when oil prices and government subsidies dropped. Northwest
Colorado's economy was left reeling after Exxon laid off 2,200 people
in one day in May 1982 at its oil shale project in nearby Parachute.
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