RIFLE, Colo.—People worried about rising gasoline prices, and air and water quality voiced their concerns Tuesday in a meeting about plans to try to unlock millions of barrels of oil from rocks in vast sections of western Colorado.
About 100 people turned out for the Bureau of Land Management’s meeting in Rifle on efforts to take a fresh look at an oil shale plan the Bush administration released in 2008, according to the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.
That plan made about 1.9 million acres of public land potentially available for commercial oil shale development in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, and about 431,000 acres available for tar sands leasing and development. The proposal prompted lawsuits and was criticized by elected officials, including former Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, now head of the Interior Department, which will oversee any oil shale development.
The BLM kicked off its public meetings on the issue in Utah last week. Meetings were planned in Denver on Wednesday and in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Thursday.
A draft of a report on opening the region to development is expected to be completed by late September, with the final report completed by December 2012.
The potential of oil shale, estimated at 1.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil, stirred strong feelings at the meeting. The area dealt for years with the aftermath when the last attempt to mine Colorado’s oil shale collapsed in 1982. Exxon shut down a $5 billion project, putting 2,200 people out of work.
Companies are trying to find economic, effective ways to free up the shale, or kerogen, a precursor to oil that wasn’t buried deeply enough or naturally processed long enough to complete the transformation to oil. A handful of companies have been granted small, federal parcels in Colorado and Utah for research and development projects.
Proponents of development say the region’s vast resources could help cut the country’s reliance on foreign oil.
“If there’s any of you out there who don’t like $4 gas, be prepared for $8 gas,” said Allen Burnham of Oil Shale LLC.
However, critics urged federal officials to scale back the amount of public land leased for oil shale and focus on alternative forms of energy.
“Oil shale development would perpetuating a negative feedback of dirty technology,” said Melanie Finan.
Opponents have said processing oil shale would require huge volumes of water and would harm air and water quality.
Garfield County Assessor Jim Yellico said area residents just want to hear facts rather than competing claims about oil shale.
“It’d be nice if, with your recommendations, there were some facts and the truth,” Yellico said.
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Information from: Post Independent,
