Tar sands and oil-bearing shale lurk under the surface in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, and at least one company has plans to extract them from state-owned lands near Arches National Park. Now the Bureau of Land Management seeks to hold public meetings and solicit public comment on an expanded plan for extraction from federally owned public lands.
Urgent to Salt Lake City: the first meeting is today and tonight at the Little America Hotel, 500 South Main, Salt Lake City, (801) 596-5800, Wyoming Conference Room, 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. Additional meetings, including Denver and Cheyenne, run through May 5.
Urgent to America: public comments are being accepted only through May 15. Pertinent points below the fold.
The Department of the Interior seeks public comment on turning up to two million acres of federally owned public land into "the most environmentally devastating mining on Earth." Because tar sands is, among other things, extremely water-intensive, it's perhaps ironic that a new Department of Interior study finds that climate change will sap Utah's water supply.
If you can attend a public meeting in Utah, Colorado, or Wyoming:
April 26 in Salt Lake City, Utah - Little America Hotel, 500 South Main, Salt Lake City, (801) 596-5800, Wyoming Conference Room, (1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
April 27 in Price, Utah - Holiday Inn Hotel, 838 Westwood Blvd, Price, (435) 637-8880, San Rafael/Skyline Meeting Room ; (1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
April 28 in Vernal, Utah - Uintah Basin Applied Technology Center, 450 North 2000 West, Vernal, (435) 725-7100, Multi Use Rooms #1, 2, 3 (1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
April 29 in Rock Springs, Wyoming - BLM Rock Springs Field Office, 280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, WY. (1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
May 3 in Rifle, Colorado - Colorado Mountain College, West Garfield Campus, 3695 Airport Rd, Main Auditorium, Rifle, CO 8165(1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
May 4 in Denver, Colorado - Denver West Marriott, 1717 Denver West Blvd, Golden, CO 80401(1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
May 5 in Cheyenne, Wyoming - The Holiday Inn, 204 West Fox Farm Road, Cheyenne, WY (1:00 - 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.)
If you can't attend a meeting in person but are simply a concerned American who has visited the gorgeous red rocks of Utah's Canyonlands region, or will someday visit those rocks, or who gives one iota about the future of the planet and doesn't want to choke on the carbon emissions generated by environmentally destructive mining, submit a comment using this form. The BLM has previously acknowledged that oil shale mining would completely displace all other uses of the land, industrializing 100,000 acres of wilderness-quality land, polluting air and water, and destroying habitat for endangered/threatened species.
Fellow climate hawk Ash Anderson suggests public comments reflecting one or more of these points:
Oil shale is projected to have huge impacts on water supplies in the West. The latest water use estimates for oil shale development range from three times the amount consumed annually in Mesa County, Colorado (110,000 acre ft) to 50% more than the Denver Metro area consumes annually (378,000 acre ft). Either scenario would have enormous impacts on the West, whose desert climate makes existing water resources already scarce enough.
Oil shale would have significant impacts to wildlife and fish populations. The land overlying oil shale resources in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming is some of the best wildlife habitat in the West. Elk, deer, and aquatic species would be seriously impacted by a full-scale oil-shale industry. BLM estimated in its draft Environmental Impact Statement that large-scale oil shale development would result in the permanent loss of up to 50 percent of BLM stream fisheries in the area of development, up to 35 percent of Colorado River cutthroat trout fisheries, and up to 11 percent of available nest and brood range for blue and sage grouse.
Oil shale requires a huge amount of electricity to heat it enough to extract a liquid from the rock. The BLM’s initial estimates show that producing 1 million barrels per day would require ten new coal-fired power plants, each with a capacity to power a city of 500,000 people.
During over 100 years of industry efforts to develop oil shale – during which not one barrel of oil has been commercially produced – Colorado communities have been subject to the economic devastation wreaked by failed attempts. Historically, “boom and bust” industries have had negative long-term and immediate impacts on regional economies. Claims that investing in tar sands and oil shale development will help to fund better public programs and the health of the local economy and its citizens are false.
Oil shale is a dirty fuel of the past. We have to shut down those responsible for perpetuating contributions to catastrophic climate change, the effects of which are already devastating vulnerable communities all over the world. As a nation we should be investing in clean energy sources of the future, not wasting our time promoting dirty energy sources of the past like oil shale and tar sands.