GOP lawmakers scold Ritter on oil shale

Posted by egable on September 26th, 2008 filed in Energy development

Citing the recent surge in energy prices amid a deteriorating economy, Republican lawmakers yesterday accused Gov. Bill Ritter (D) of stonewalling the development of Colorado’s oil-shale reserves.

Ritter wrote Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne a letter this week saying it’s “irresponsible” to press ahead with commercial oil shale leasing now. Ritter chided the president Wednesday for blocking the extension of a provision that effectively banned leases on federal land for shale development. That ban is set to expire Tuesday.

“Mysteriously, the governor says that the height of an energy crisis is the wrong time to bring up accelerating energy production in our state’s rich oil shale reserves,” state Sen. Mike Kopp (R) said in a statement. “My question for him is this: So when will the right time be here? My hunch is that his answer would be ‘never.’”

Daniel Fine of MIT estimates that 750 billion barrels worth of oil shale have been discovered in Colorado alone and that if full-scale production begins within five years, the United States could completely end its dependence on OPEC by 2020. However, the companies researching oil shale development in northwestern Colorado say commercial production is at least 10 years away.