The Politics of Hope - Salazar Blocks Oil Shale Leases

[babylonsister]

The Politics of Hope - Salazar Blocks Oil Shale Leases

by Charles Lemos, Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 01:28:52 AM EST


"Those who have fantasized that oil shale is a panacea for America's energy needs have been living in a fantasy land." - Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar

There is more evidence today that we indeed have begun to reverse the gross malfeasance of the Bush Administration in their management of Federal lands and the nation's natural resources. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled oil shale development leases on Federal lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and announced that the Interior Department would first study the water, power and land-use issues surrounding the development oil shale. This is the third time since taking office that the Obama Administration has frozen late-term Bush decisions that sought to spur domestic energy development over objections from environmentalists.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

Interior Department aides noted that even Bush officials, testifying before Congress last year, estimated that oil shale wouldn't be commercially viable until 2016 at earliest. Salazar said the department was not "anti-development."

"We want to be thoughtful and deliberate as we move forward," he said.

He also said he expected plug-in electric vehicles to play a large role in the administration's energy independence plans.

Replacing Bush's leases with additional research leases, Salazar said, will allow the department to examine the unresolved issues of shale, major deposits of which are in Colorado and other mountain states. Among the issues: how much power and water it would require to extract -- and where, in the often-parched West, the water would come from.

Some studies of commercial shale development have suggested that the technology would consume huge quantities of water and produce mountains of potentially toxic waste material.

Environmentalists celebrated Wednesday's announcement.

"This is a huge step forward in protecting America's Western lands from oil shale development, which is nothing more than a dirty, expensive pipe dream," said Bobby McEnaney, lands advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Shale oil is a non-starter. If crude oil is king, oil shale is the poorest of paupers. According to energy experts, pound per pound, oil shale contains just one-tenth the energy of crude oil, one-sixth that of coal, and one-fourth that of recycled phone books. In poor countries, millions of people heat their homes with dried manure. Dung cakes have four times more energy than does oil shale. Oil shale is a fossil fuel--but just barely. After factoring in energy extraction costs, the energy return on oil shale is insignificant.

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http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/2/26/12852/8083