Washington – A key congressional committee Wednesday endorsed a proposal to speed up oil-shale development in western Colorado by dropping requirements for consultation with state and local officials.
The proposal by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., also would limit environmental review of shale development and cap royalties.
The plan was approved by the committee in the same bill that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling.
“The technology has gotten to the point where we have to do something,” Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said in support of the shale legislation.
Republican committee members blocked Democratic Rep. Mark Udall’s attempt to strip out the accelerated shale provisions. Udall, D-Colo., likened Pombo’s proposal to the policies that led to Colorado’s 1982 “Black Sunday” shale crash, and said it could turn northwestern Colorado into a “national sacrifice zone.”
Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who authored elements of the shale-development program in the energy bill passed last summer, has pledged to try to block efforts in the Senate to speed up shale development.
Some geologists say up to 1 trillion barrels of oil lie bound in the 1,000-foot-thick shale formations of western Colorado, Wyoming and Utah – as much as the rest of the world’s proven oil reserves. But other experts say widespread oil-shale development is years away.
Staff writer Mike Soraghan can be reached at 202-662-8730 or msoraghan@denverpost.com.
