Energy dispute over Rockies riches

[Trajan]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Energy dispute over Rockies riches

A trove of oil shale may be a boon. But the science to extract fuel is imperfect, and locals worry about their water supplies, which ultimately feed Southern California reservoirs.

By Julie Cart

December 28, 2008

Reporting from Salt Lake City — A titanic battle between the West's two traditional power brokers -- Big Oil and Big Water -- has begun.

At stake is one of the largest oil reserves in the world, a vast cache trapped beneath the Rocky Mountains containing an estimated 800 billion barrels -- about three times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Extracting oil from rocky seams of underground shale is not only expensive, but also requires massive amounts of water, a precious resource crucial to continued development in the nation's fastest-growing region.

The conflict between oil and water interests has now come to a head. On Oct. 31, Congress allowed a moratorium on oil shale leasing to expire. That paved the way for the Bush administration to finalize leasing rules last month that opened 2 million acres of federal land to exploration.

-snip-

"There are estimates that oil shale could use all of the remaining water in upper Colorado River Basin," said Susan Daggett, a commissioner on the Denver Water Board. "That essentially pits oil shale against people's needs."

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-shale28-2008dec28,0,4185226.story

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WTF are they thinking ?

READ the story to find out how the Bush Administration is undercutting royalties, changing regulations AND providing money from the bailout in an all out push to allow this to happen ....

The theft of the public trust continues ....

[Lorien]

1. Complete madness

people need water far more than we need more fossil fuels. That drug is going to run out soon enough. If BushCo wants to spend bailout money on something, let's INNOVATE for a change!

[.... callchet ....]

2. People vs policies

I believe we are going to have a disastrous economic depression. I believe that what got us into it is a total disregard for human rights. All of our resources have been packaged and sold back to us. All the laws have been changed to allow the few to profit from the many. We have been taught to worship the lucky and hate the unlucky. So there have been a lot of forces and positions that have got us here. The position that can get us out is the respect for all human life. No more "sacrificing for the poor and unlucky". Positions have to be judged according to how they Will immediately benefit mankind.. The lookout for future generations means nothing if we kill each other now. The disregard for human life in general and the and the building of personal dynasties specifically have to reconciled for the longevity of the human race. There are already more people unemployed now than during the great depression. The fallacy of % evaluation has disguised this. There are already 10,000,000 million people unemployed now vs 12,000,000 at the height of the depression of 1929. Although rate are 25% vs 7%. The only goal now has to be getting the most people back to work the quickest. There are going to be some environmental setbacks to do this, but if we can get over paying a baseball player $180,000,000 then maybe we can get in touch with reality. If not you will hear the trumpets blowing at the wall. Sympathetic people have to get to work.

[jwirr]

3. Just a few questions. What area is effected by the water use? All the

way to Mexico? What about the Iowa aquifer? I can see that in the future as oil becomes VERY scarce that the people of the USA will not care about the lack of water in certain areas because of their own blindness. This move places the rules and regs in place for that day. They will most likely just let it set there for now.

This highlights the problem we have with environmental issues. We,even in the environmental movement are still thinking we can keep things going the way they are today. Hardly anyone is thinking about changing our lifestyle and unfortunately that seems to include our future president. However, JH Kunstler says PE Obama is will not be able to bring about the change we need because if he tells the truth he will be in the same position as Carter was about energy - no one will want to hear what he has to say.

[awoke_in_2003]

5. Well if water becomes a problem...

I am sure some asshat out there will see the Great Lakes as a great source.

[acmavm]

4. Wars in the future will all be over water.

[quaker bill]

6. Not water

the planet is 2/3 covered by water. The wars will be fought over water that is cheap to make suitably clean to drink. In fact, the battles have already begun, but for the most part we are only using lawyers at this point, the heavier equipment comes later.

[acmavm]

10. How is that not fighting over water? Do you want to be named the DU

Water Czar? You can be the expert, that's fine. Shit, we got 'em here for everything else, you might as well be our very own expert on water and what it means for our future.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Precisely, water is the next oil, as they say.

Of course it would be nice to address all shortages and environmental problems by integrating some population management strategies, but that's another topic...

:thumbsup:

[4dsc]

8. SNAKE OIL!!

Shale oil is not really an OIL its a mineral..

[Trajan]

9. There are many troubling aspects here ...

Another citation:

Meanwhile, already- parched Western states bracing for more growth are completing water supply inventories. A Colorado study projected that by 2050, with the state's oil shale operations at full capacity, the industry will require 14 times more power than currently generated by the state's largest power plant.

The study's sobering bottom line is that meeting oil shale's energy demands could require more water than Colorado is entitled to under an interstate compact.

-snip-

Despite the objections, oil shale development has been pushed forward by a series of recent actions. In an effort to encourage the fledgling industry, officials said, new regulations allow oil shale operators to pay unusually low royalty rates. The system calls for producers to pay 5% for the first five years, increasing 1% each year until reaching 12.5%, the standard federal oil and gas royalty rate.

In recent weeks, the industry was included in the $700-billion government bailout package with investment and tax incentives to help oil shale producers build refineries and other expensive infrastructure.

This is a fucking TRAVESTY ..... How much energy is going to be expended to extract 'energy' ? ... and why should the entities that benefited from the HIGHEST PROFITS IN HISTORY hit the public treasure up for development funds to build on PUBLIC LAND ? .... at DISCOUNT royalties for the public revenues ?

That is one might sweet deal, not even figuring the ASININE usage of water and FOURTEEN TIMES the energy already used in Colorado .... Where the FUCK is that energy going to come from ? .... So they will build MORE power plants to help power energy extraction from OUR LAND, paying us LESS AND LESS for MORE AND MORE, and we will foot the bill for making it all happen, AND suffer the excess discharge from the required power plants ....

What kind of incestuous clusterfuck are they doing to us AGAIN ? ....

This puts Enron to shame .... Enron was a puny ninety pound weakling ....