Boulder News

New West Energy Grok

Oil-Shale Delayed in D.C.

By Richard Martin, 6-29-07

The controversy over drilling for oil on Bureau of Land Management property in the West got hotter, and more complicated, this week as the U.S. House passed an amendment that would bar the BLM from issuing commercial oil shale leases in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Sponsored by Mark Udall of Colorado, the amendment to the 2008 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill prohibits the BLM from using public money to publish regulations for its commercial shale oil program, and from conducting leasing for shale oil exploration and drilling.

That move came after Udall and Rep. John Salazar were turned back in their effort to delay or forestall drilling on the Roan Plateau, near Rifle in Western Colorado. Salazar and Udall released a statement blaming a “curiously timed and highly speculative” cost estimate that was added to their amendment to review Roan Plateau drilling for blocking the measure’s package.

The Roan Plateau is part of the Piceance Basin, which is thought to contain large amounts of hard-to-recover oil trapped in shale.

In other energy news:

-- Meanwhile the BLM is also studying renewable forms of energy. Along with the National Forest Service, the bureau is studying 11 Western states (plus Alaska) to find areas suited for geothermal energy development and to delineate the likely social and environmental impacts. The final report is due to be completed in September 2008, and the federal agencies say commercial leasing will begin soon thereafter.

-- Along with Texas and California, Colorado is among six states that will see the bulk of $65 billion-plus that will be invested in new US wind power-generation over the next 8 years, according to a new report from Emerging Energy Research. By 2015, the consulting group says, the U.S. will be the largest wind-power producer in the world, with capacity of 49,000 megawatts.

-- Washing bacon grease down your drain? Hold on. The world’s largest poultry producer may want to turn it into biodiesel. Tyson Foods Inc. said this week that it will enter a joint venture with Syntroleum Corp., of Tulsa, to turn grease and fat into fuel for autos and even jets. Syntroleum and Tyson plan to build a $150 million plant in the south-central U.S. that will take animal fat from Tyson’s processing plants and turn it into liquid fuel. Syntroleum shares jumped 17 percent on the news.

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