Editor’s Note: This is an example the environmental NGO’s misidentifying the issue with Oil Shale Development in the United States. The CRE recently released a white paper outlining the issues concerning oil shale development. The paper found:
“Unfortunately, the Coalition is unable to support this proposition [oil shale’s adverse impact on water availability] with any data. While it is important to be cautious about water resource availability and its competing uses, the
Environmental NGO Coalition’s assertion also contradicts the data incorporated into the PEIS by BLM. Both the 2008 PEIS and 2012 draft PEIS conclude that there will be a water surplus of 340,348 (ac-ft/yr) in 2000 and 268,425 (ac-ft/yr) in 2030 in Colorado.”
From: Equities.com
DENVER, Aug. 30 — The Clean Water Action issued the following news release:
Today, the Clean Water Fund announced its advertising campaign: “Don’t let oil shale drain our water away.”
The campaign will run throughout the Denver metro area into September and includes radio, print, news websites, Facebook, and an online video.
Colorado has already been dealing with a severe drought, which the U.S. Drought Monitor cites as the state’s worst drought in ten years.
“Oil shale could drain our water away,” said Gary Wockner, Colorado program director of the Clean Water Fund. “No one knows just how much water oil shale companies would use or pollute, but we do know oil shale poses an unacceptable risk to our rivers.”
Though processing oil shale rock into oil is still in the research phase, the Government Accountability Office has estimated that commercial scale oil shale development could require as much as 378,000 acre feet of water – as much as 140 percent the amount provided by Denver Water each year.
Earlier this year, the Front Range Water Users Council submitted comments that cited a long list of threats to Colorado’s water from potential oil shale development, including: the Colorado River, drinking water supplies, water quality, and threatened and endangered species.
Oil shale companies have already control access to critical water supplies, including more than 200 water rights and 100 irrigation ditches. If those rights were ever developed, it would have severe consequences for Colorado’s rivers, farmers, and ranchers.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about oil shale, or if it can ever be developed. Industry should prove that it can develop oil shale without ruining our rivers and waters before we consider commercial leasing on public lands,” said Wockner.
Earlier this month, more than 100 individuals, businesses, local outdoor recreation organizations, farms and ranches, wineries and breweries, watershed protection organizations, and others signed a letter submitted today to the Obama administration in support of that approach.
“The oil shale industry should be required to conduct the necessary research prior to commercial leasing to prove that oil shale is economically viable and that it will not pose a dangerous risk to our drinking water, our agricultural industry, and our rivers,” the coalition wrote.
The Clean Water Fund ad campaign focuses on the consequences of a reckless approach to oil shale for Colorado’s rivers. The online video features a fisherman at the bank, two kids in a kayak, and a swimmer in goggles ready to enjoy a river with only one problem – the river has run dry.
The Obama administration has a previously stated that a decision would be coming mid-September regarding how oil shale research will be managed on federal public lands and what safeguards are in place for western water.
Oil shale is not oil. It is a rock found in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. When superheated to 700 degrees over a period of months or years, the organic material within the rock can be processed into oil. To date, no company has found a way to develop a commercially viable U.S. oil shale industry
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