Is it a good idea to extract two million barrels of kerogen a day from the Green River Formation in Colorado?

Question

The Green River Formation, located in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado contains oil shale. A major industrial project is proposed to mine oil shale, or heat it in place, to produce oil, in large quantities. A Oil Shale and Tar Sands Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been prepared and is on line at http://www.ostseis.anl.gov/involve/index.cfm This is a real question with real consequences. I asked this question earlier, but seem to have underestimated or not understood the true scale of the project. The US imports about 10 million barrels a day. A single retort installation would produce 50k a day, in situ 200k a day.

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

The more the better, as long as it can compete with other sources of fuel production.

Answer 3

If it's legal and can be done without significant impact to surrounding property owners, I don't have a problem with it.  

If those who own property in the area are concerened about the effects, they should contact their legislatures to get the project stopped.  Otherwise, wait until the operation is complete to clean up the mess.  It may sound rude but its the truth about how our capitalist economy operates.

Answer 4

You and I already know what the environmentalist wacko`s answer is

Answer 5

The ecological wisdom of doing this will be ignored and the project  will go ahead without hesitation.

If there is to be any saving grace it has to be provided by people who want the oil but also want to avoid the environmental problems extracting it will produce.

Those extra steps needed to protect the environment will undoubtedly add to its cost, and  it should be clear that al those costs should be borne by those who use that oil, not by residents of the states involved in environmental damage.

Early exploitation means that the resource will not be available later, so that a cost of early exploitation is the unavailability later. Those who use the early extracted oil should likewise pay the cost to society that using it up early will visit on later generations. Which is to say that there should be reversed depletion allowances.

Answer 6

i agree,i think people should use oil wisely.

and indeed this is a real problem but the carelesness of others also effect everyone.