Oil Shale: Bush is in a hole and digging

The Bush administration has drafted new rules in their attempt to keep us dependent on oil, while transferring more Colorado lands and resources into the hands of their largest donors. The Bush plan accelerates oil-shale development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, rather than investing in alternative fuels. Still many years away from even potential results, the plan is being sold as an emergency short term response to current energy prices.

(cross-posted at SquareState.net)

Anne C. Mulkern of the Denver Post writes:

Environmental groups that oppose oil-shale development said the 235- page BLM document with preliminary rules is unnecessary. In it, the BLM states that "currently, there is no oil-shale industry and the oil-shale extractive technology is still in its rudimentary stages."

"The only benefit that could come from this would be for those seeking partisan political gain in trying to give the impression that ... this oil-shale industry has a role to play in impacting high energy prices," said Chase Huntley, policy adviser with the Wilderness Society.

The administration is blocked from taking further action by a Congressional moritorium that expires on Oct. 1st. Sen. Ken Salazar, the author of the original ban, seeks to extend the current rules until 2009.

Sen. Salazar:

"Before we move ahead with commercial leasing, we need to know what impact oil shale will have on Western water supplies, whether the technology will work on a commercial scale, where we would get the power for the projects, and what effect it would have on our land and wildlife."

•  Tip Jars: Our renewablest resource

  by TakeBackTheHouse on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 09:55:51 AM PDT

  •  Oil Shale is renewable

    Every 100 million years or so.

    by AppleP on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:26:00 AM PDT

    •  tip jars are self renewing

      Imagine if we harnessed the immense power of the tip jars. We could run entire cities on the energy produced on a single mojo-Friday. Sadly, with current technology the energy consumed in making tip-jars is lower than the mojo they usually produce.

      That is why I am researching the felinothermal power of the warmness generated by Caturday.

      by TakeBackTheHouse on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 11:06:29 AM PDT

•  Breaking NPR a tanker carrying biodiesel and a

  barge carrying fuel collided just now in the Mississippi river, releasing hundreds of thousands of gallons, closing 30 miles north of N'orleans

  by Theghostofkarlafayetucker on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:04:54 AM PDT

  •  details

    NEW ORLEANS -- Multiple oil cleanup crews have been called to clean a chemical spill on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, according to a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman. Officials said the cleanup would take days and involve about 200 workers using booms and skimmers to remove the chemicals, reported WDSU-TV in New Orleans.

    Fuel spilled into the river Wednesday morning when a ship sliced through a barge. The National Transportation and Safety Board estimated about 375,000 gallons of fuel spilled into the river.

    Twenty-nine miles of river remained shut down Wednesday. Officials said the state would supervise the cleanup process.

    The barge split in half when it struck the Tintomara, a 600-foot chemical hauler. The Tintomara, a Liberian vessel, contained biodiesel and styrene that a spokesman said did not spill from the double-hulled vessel.

    The barge's owner, American Commercial Lines, immediately took responsibility for the spill, which a spokesman said it's obligated to do according to federal law.

    Officials said the ships collided around 1:30 a.m. CDT. No injuries were reported.

    The strong river current pushed the barge to a spot near New Orleans' convention center. Tugboats were dispatched to keep the broken barge stationary in the river.

    Meanwhile, officials moved to protect local water supplies. Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser shut off the intake to the public water supply. St. Bernard Parish switched to its reserve supply, according to Parish President Craig Taffaro. Those living in Algiers, Gretna, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish were asked to conserve water.

    As of Wednesday morning, the Canal-Algiers, Jackson-Gretna and Chalmette ferries were all out of service.

    The riverfront street car was also out of service until further notice, and the Canal Street street car was scheduled to stop its route at Baronne Street all day.

    by Theghostofkarlafayetucker on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 11:36:52 AM PDT

•  dig till you strike oil

  The Bush plan accelerates oil-shale development in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, rather than investing in alternative fuels.

  If industry doesn't find it to be worth investing in, maybe it's not such a good idea yet.  Now they can choose between Shale and the other options.

  Still many years away from even potential results, the plan is being sold as an emergency short term response to current energy prices.

  I wonder which is closer, shale or the alternatives.

  by buzzsaw on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:08:04 AM PDT

  •  "worth investing in"

    Except in this case they are at least in part investing our money in it. When you open public lands to drilling, you are not really letting market forces decide the direction of energy policy. You are choosing which to subsidize.

    If we are going to be funding long term alternatives, doesn't it make sense to fund the ones that are sustainable, and not build our long term plans around short term solutions?

    by TakeBackTheHouse on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:13:24 AM PDT

    •  the areas of utah

      above  the oil shale are archeologically sensitive.  

      and there is no water out there anyway.

      i heard someone at the ?energy panel? called it drill and burn, or something like that.  

      by jlms qkw on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:21:09 AM PDT

      •  Van Jones: Drill and Burn

        I remember that it was the Van Jones Keynote where we heard Drill and Burn at NN08.  His website: Green For All

        by greenchiledem on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 06:04:23 AM PDT

    •  when did a lease become a subsidy?

      The oil companies pay the government for the leases. To NOT lease would be to prevent market forces from operating.

      Am i missing something?

      by buzzsaw on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:36:10 AM PDT

      •  Probably

        I suspect you are missing something, and doing so intentionally, but I am happy to follow along anyhow.

        For market forces to operate one assumes a large number of bidders and sellers, and not a monopoly or oligopoly. In this case, you have current and former oil company lobbyists reaching an agreement to resources on public lands to the industries that have either employed them in the past, will employ them in the near future, or employ them currently.

        We cannot assume in this situation that there will be fair pricing of these assets, or that the life cycle costs to the American public of polluting these lands will be figured into any of the calculations.

        To have outgoing Bush operatives set the terms on the deals with companies that will be hiring them in January might be business as usual, but let's not confuse this political reality with anything approaching a free market.

        by TakeBackTheHouse on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:56:36 AM PDT

•  This is a non-starter

  From climateprogress.org, "oil shale has 1/3 the energy density of CAP'N CRUNCH!"

  by Uosdwis on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:21:43 AM PDT

  •  great

    Let me know when you find the supermarket aisle with the capacity to produce 800 billion barrels of oil...

    The Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming "holds the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil—as much as the U.S. would use in 110 years, at current consumption levels, and three times the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia," according to a Nov. 13 press release from the Bureau of Land Management.

    by buzzsaw on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:39:42 AM PDT

    •  e = mc ^ 2

      There is a vast store of energy in every aisle of the supermarket.

      The question is, what is the smartest investment if we want to get the energy we need?

      by TakeBackTheHouse on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 11:01:52 AM PDT

•  Oil Shale is a big bunch of BS

  It's being pushed by the GOP, but the oil companies know it isn't happening. Extracting the oil uses a huge amount of energy, and the return is less than zero. The only way it becomes profitable is if the price of natural gas is much, much lower (in terms of btu's per $) than crude oil. But oil companies love to hold those leases for next to nothing and they absolutely LOVE getting subsidies and research grant money from the government. See here:

  Per pound, it contains one-tenth the energy of crude oil, one-sixth that of coal.
  . . .
  Searching for appropriate analogies, we enter the realm of Weight Watchers. Oil shale is said to be "rich" when a ton yields 30 gallons of oil. An equal weight of granola contains three times more energy. America's "vast," "immense" deposits of shale have the energy density of a baked potato. Oil shale has one-third the energy density of Cap'n Crunch, but no one is counting on the Quaker Oats Company to become a major energy producer soon.
  . . .
  All hype aside, oil shale is the poorest of the fossil fuels, containing far less energy than crude oil, much less even than hog manure, peat moss or Cap'n Crunch. A meager amount of energy, tightly bound up in an enormous volume of rock, oil shale seems destined to remain an elusive bonanza, the petroleum equivalent of fool's gold.

  by GW Chimpzilla on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:29:02 AM PDT

  •  I remember reading how much gold there was

    dissolved in the oceans until you came across the part where it would take a gazillion gallons of processing to come up with a single ounce.

    So theoretically, there is oil in shale - but there is more in the spot on my driveway where I spilled engine oil the last time I changed it.

    by Ammo Hauler on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 10:32:31 AM PDT

•  Salazar doesn't get it.

  "Before we move ahead with commercial leasing, we need to know what impact oil shale will have on Western water supplies, whether the technology will work on a commercial scale, where we would get the power for the projects, and what effect it would have on our land and wildlife."

  Those are all important points of course, but he doesn't mention the biggest one, that commercial extraction of oil shale would release huge amounts of CO2, intensifying the Climaticide that we are committing.

  From the Rocky Mountain News:

  Oil shale projects in the western U.S. by Exxon Mobil Corp. and other producers would spew as much carbon dioxide as all the factories and vehicles in Taiwan or Brazil, according to the Colorado Energy Research Institute.

  by JohnnyRook on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 11:09:29 AM PDT

•  May 15 2008 Senate hearing on oil shale

  Here is a link to the May 15 2008 Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources Oversight Hearing: To receive testimony on development of oil shale resources

  In particular, read the testimony of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and The Wilderness Society Assistant Director Steve Smith.  

  It's clear from this testimony that essentially, the whole oil-shale thing is a scam to allow the Bush administration to override environmental regulations and give away public lands to corporate interests.  

  High gas prices are merely a convenient excuse to rush the process since the next administration is likely to approach the issue in a far more measured and prudent fashion.

  by AmyB on Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 12:26:03 PM PDT