Oil-shale debate airs in Grand Junction

300 attend hearing called by senators to discuss pros, cons

Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 2, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Energy

More stories »

GRAND JUNCTION - More than 300 people showed up at Grand Junction's City Hall on Thursday morning to show their support and criticism of oil shale.

About two dozen wore white T-shirts bearing a yellow diamond shape and the message: Go Slow on Oil Shale.

"I know that oil shale is ultimately going to happen," said Becky Barabe, who wore the T-shirt while she sat through the two-hour hearing. "I just want it to happen the right way. I saw what had happened previously and don't want to see that happen again."

Organized by Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.; Pete Domenici, R-N.M.; and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the hearing was an opportunity for the local community as well as state and local officials to voice their concerns as the government urges energy companies to extract oil from unconventional sources, including shale formations.

Addressing the packed auditorium, Domenici, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, tried to assure the audience that mistakes of the past wouldn't be repeated.

He also stressed the need to develop oil shale, given the nation's huge appetite for oil and the skyrocketing price of the commodity imported mostly from unstable foreign countries.

Developing oil shale in the West "could literally shake the world," Domenici said.

Domenici and Salazar had toured energy giant Shell's research project on oil shale near Meeker in Rio Blanco County on Wednesday afternoon. Both lawmakers later said they were impressed with the investment that Shell was making in the project, although the company has said it won't make a decision about the technology's commercial profitability until 2010.

"What's happening is, this part of the world is going through a technological revolution," one that could free the nation of foreign dependence on oil in 10 to 15 years, Domenici said, referring to the oil- shale technologies touted by various companies. "This is a fantastic resource."

The United States holds more than 50 percent of the world's oil- shale resources, the equivalent of 2.6 trillion barrels of oil, of which 1.5 trillion barrels are recoverable.

That alone is equal to more oil than the combined reserves of the Middle East. Most of the oil shale is locked underneath the Green River Basin straddling parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

While Hatch seemed as optimistic as Domenici, Salazar sounded a warning bell.

"Before we take big steps forward with oil shale, we must answer several questions that are of vital concern to western Colorado," Salazar said, adding that land and water use and economic feasibility of oil-shale development must be addressed.

"We must protect Colorado's water rights and gain a better understanding of the amounts of water that will be consumed to produce oil from shale and to restore the disturbed lands," Salazar said.

The senators, however, agreed that the federal government doesn't have to offer tax incentives to energy companies to boost oil-shale development in view of the high price of oil. At $70 a barrel, oil is expensive enough that oil shale can compete with it in the market, they said.

Russell George, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, conceded many unknowns surround oil shale but nonetheless promised full support for its development.

In fact, the state is putting together a team to collaborate on the regulatory process for future oil-shale projects.

One or two officials from state agencies such as the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Division of Geology, the Geological Survey, Fish and Wildlife Services and the Water Conservation Board would be included on the team. The team would be put in place in a couple of weeks.

"Let's talk together," George said. "The state has not staffed oil shale for 20 years. We need to build an internal oil-shale team."

The resources at the county level are even more inadequate, said Kim Cook, chairman of the Rio Blanco County Commission and a witness at Thursday's hearing. For instance, the county with a population of 6,500 doesn't have enough tax revenues to upgrade its infrastructure to accommodate oil-shale development.

"The roads were not designed for heavy traffic," Cook said.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News