‘Draconian’ restrictions shackle oil shale industry

‘Draconian’ restrictions shackle oil shale industry

Friday, May 25, 2012

‘Draconian’ restrictions shackle oil shale industry
 
The Mesa County Board of Commissioners was correct in opposing the BLM’s rewrite of the Oil Shale Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and their preferred alternative, which reduces the land available for commercial oil shale leasing by over three quarters.
The Preferred Alternative and, in fact, all of the new alternatives in the 2012 PEIS would do nothing but prevent socioeconomic benefits of oil shale development from occurring and make the future development of oil shale even more difficult than it already is.
The draconian land restrictions and requirements placed on oil shale companies to demonstrate their technology to the satisfaction of a government bureaucrat before they can even apply for a commercial lease will only keep the oil shale industry perpetually stuck in the R&D phase.
No other industry is required to prove to Big Brother that their plan is “viable” before it is allowed to proceed with its business. Why is an industry with the national importance of oil shale expected to do so?
If the concern is truly environmental, it should be noted that the oil and gas industry, especially in western Colorado, has a demonstrated record of good stewardship that is denied only by the most virulently ideological opponents to development of any kind. This good environmental record is at least in part due to the fact that it is in the best interests of individual companies—no one wants the economic and public relations disaster that comes with wanton environmental damage.
Oil shale development will bring hundreds, possibly thousands, of jobs to the region, provide economic growth and all of the spinoffs associated with it and help wean our nation off foreign oil. The federal government, through the Salazar Interior Department, should not be doing everything it can to stand in the way of this for purely political reasons.
Salazar stands in the way of virtually any development of our important natural resources on any federal land. He has blocked gas drilling in the Vermillion Basin in northwest Colorado as well as on top of the Roan Plateau. He has attempted to lock up more than 1 million acres of northern Arizona to stop any development of the uranium resources there. He issued a ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP spill that was later reversed by federal courts.
Since then, he has taken the delay, delay, delay tactic to the extreme in issuing drilling permits in the Gulf. He has opposed any exploration and development in the Arctic Natural Wildlife Reserve. The part he opposes is development on the 1.5 million acres that were specifically set aside for energy development when the 19-million-acre ANWR was created. None of the operations would occur on sensitive lands.
He opposes development of any traditional forms of energy and instead would rather we become ever more dependent on foreign sources of energy. This decision has become well more than a proper evaluation and has become a political statement by Salazar and the Obama administration. We must develop our resources now before foreign powers blackmail us by shutting off other sources.