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The rich oil shale resources of western Colorado are no secret. They were discovered over a hundred years ago, and they have seen several failed attempts at exploitation -- due primarily to cost and technical issues. The most recent oil shale boom went bust on “Black Sunday” in May 1982 when oil companies closed the Colony Oil Shale project near Parachute, Colorado and over 2,000 residents of western Colorado became unemployed overnight. After decades of inaction, however, high gasoline prices led Congress in 2005 to put oil shale planning on a fast track.
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| Oil shale is a sedimentary rock. When heated to extreme temperatures, oil shale can be converted into liquid petroleum. |
Oil shale development requires an incredible amount of energy because large amounts of rock must be heated to extremely high temperatures. Traditional above-ground retorts for cooking oil shale must heat the rock to up to about 900° F to release the oil. Studies show that at least 40% of the energy value of the shale is consumed in production, since the shale has to be mined, transported, retorted, and then the by-products disposed of. Not a very high yield for the amount of energy put into the process.
Generating 1,200 megawatts, the amount needed for comercial oil shale operations, would require a new power plant as large as any currently operating in Colorado, enough to serve a city of 500,000. This new plant would cost about $3 billion, would consume five million tons of coal each year, and would emit tons of greenhouse gases and other air pollution. And this is just for the very smallest of potential commercial oil shale plants. To produce one million barrels of shale oil a day, as some have proposed, would require TEN new power plants and FIVE new coal mines to serve them.
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| Experimental oil shale facilities |
The oil shale region of western Colorado, eastern Utah, and southwestern Wyoming is dry country. Water supplies are scarce and relied upon heavily. Oil shale extraction and processing will require significant amounts of water, as will the associated growth in local communities. For these reasons, water issues have long been viewed as a major constraint on large-scale development of oil shale resources. Surface mining and retorting of oil shale would use up to five barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced.
The BLM should let companies conduct research and development activities before it takes steps towards holding a commercial lease sale. The public must know that the technology works, and that it will not result in unacceptable impacts on the environment or Western Slope communities.
Certainly the government wants to take steps to increase domestic energy supplies, and oil shale just might be able to help. But everyone agrees that commercial development of the West’s oil shale and tar sands resources is more than a decade away, and so a measured approach right now is warranted.
We urge the BLM to GO SLOW on oil shale.
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