Additional Background
Oil shale deposits across 17,000 square miles of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming hold an estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, more than three times Saudi Arabia's stated reserves. The relatively high cost of
producing oil from oil shale has meant that full-scale commercial production has
never been economically feasible. With crude oil prices at record highs and
conventional oil resources diminishing, the US Government's Energy and Interior
Departments want to jump-start oil shale production, with predictably disastrous
environmental consequences.
Both mining and processing of oil shale involve a variety of environmental
impacts. There is no oil in oil shale, instead it is a substance called kerogen,
which is solid and cannot be pumped directly out of the ground. The oil shale
must either first be mined and then heated to a high temperature, or heated
while still underground and then pumped to the surface as a liquid, a still
experimental process. Vast amounts of water are required in the mining process,
up to 4 barrels of water for every barrel of oil, a major problem in the western
USA which already has water shortages. The process produces four times the
amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared to normal oil production. There is
enormous disturbance over large areas of mined land, threatening wildlife and
flora. The large amounts of waste material produced contain toxic materials.
It would be a reckless and short-sighted to allow full-scale commercial
production of synthetic crude oils from oil shale and other non-conventional
sources. Wide scale use of such oil will result in decades of further carbon
emissions from dependence upon fossil fuels, making it impossible to stop climate
change. In the U.S. more than 70% of the total oil shale acreage is under
federally owned and managed lands, which means that politicians in Washington
D.C. will make the final decision. Please send a message today noting that a
sustainable energy future does not include oil shale.
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Release of carbon from oil shale will destroy the atmosphere
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