Oil companies are wondering if the development of oil shale will end America’s dependence on foreign oil, said Randy Udall, an energy analyst from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Oil shale is proto-petroleum, organic matter not buried deep enough to become oil.
The technology to turn oil shale into conventional oil is not available yet, said Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance representatives at lectures this week at the U.
Last month, Utah Democratic Congressman Jim Matheson supported the expiration of a congressional limitation on commercial leasing of federal lands with potential petroleum.
Environmental groups like SUWA and some state legislators believe that oil shale is not the answer to rising gas prices.
“As it stands, oil shale land (in southeastern Utah) is leased by corporations that manufacture and refine petroleum products,” said Christine Johnson, the Democratic incumbent candidate for State Legislature in House District 25. “They are not being (drilled) now, but companies (are putting in) additional requests to open up federal lands. We need to ask ourselves if there is evidence that (oil shale development) is fiscally and environmentally responsible.”
In order for oil from shale to become a liquid fuel, shale lands require two to four years of heating at more than 900 degrees. Johnson said the heat energy would most likely come from coal.
For oil shale development to happen in Colorado, the state will need a $3 billion power plant to heat the land, members of the Alliance said.
“In 1930, you could get 100 barrels of oil for every one barrel spent. By the 1990s, it was 15 to one,” Udall said. “Today it’s about eight to one. For wind it’s the equivalent of 30 to one. For oil shale it’s 1.6 to one.”
Sen. Bob Bennett called the expiration “a victory for common sense and a breakthrough in energy development for Utah and our nation.” He said in a statement, “There are people who say, “Oh, the technology is expensive. The technology does not work.’ Oil shale is producing oil in other countries today. It is time we allowed oil shale to produce oil in the United States.”
The United States uses about 1 million barrels of oil per hour. Opponents to oil shale development said the Utah oil shale lands are not expected to produce more than 100,000 barrels per day. Proponents estimate that the oil shale in the western United States holds at least 800 billion barrels of oil.