Grand Junction – Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee chairman Pete Domenici predicted Thursday that development of the oil in shale and sands under western Colorado and neighboring Wyoming and Utah will “shake the world.”
Domenici pointedly repeated that phrase as he led a packed committee field hearing to take testimony on the prospects and pitfalls of oil shale development.
Domenici, R-N.M., linked development of oil shale to patriotism as he lauded Shell Exploration & Production for sinking $50 million into a research project that could produce 100,000 barrels of oil a day at a cost of about $30 a barrel if it moves from its current research phase on private lands in Rio Blanco County and into commercial development on federal lands.
Committee member Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., called the prospect of pulling as much as 1.1 trillion barrels of oil from shale “tantalizing,” but he cautioned that past experiences “have taught us to be cautious and methodical when others are impatient and frenzied.”
“We know that too often we have allowed the whims of non-Western interests to drive our development. We neither control the pace of development nor enjoy its full benefits, yet we pay the greatest costs and assume the greatest risks,” he told an audience that was sprinkled with “Go slow on oil shale” T-shirts.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, joined Domenici and Salazar at the hearing.
“North America has a solution that matches the scale of the (supply) problem and is sufficient to meet our demands and needs,” Hatch said.
Hatch said he feels that laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act that have been enacted since the oil shale boom and bust of the 1970s and ’80s will ensure the judicious development of oil shale this time around.
Other testimony at the hearing came from county commissioners, state and industry officials and a spokesman for The Wilderness Society.
Russell George, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, warned that “technological and environmental oversight must be rigorous.”
He said his department is setting up an oil shale task force to prepare for the pressures of potential oil shale development.
Mesa County Commissioner Craig Meis said that his growing county stands ready to do its part to help the nation’s energy crunch, “but we in northwest Colorado will not be a national sacrifice zone.”
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
