Natural Soda Expansion Nearly Complete

Business | Posted by rebhan
Apr 29 2013

Natural Soda, a sodium bicarbonate mining company, is set to finish the expansion of their manufacturing plant by the end of April. The plant sits in the Green River Formation in Northwestern Colorado, which is also home to the world’s largest oil shale deposits. Natural Soda, the second largest producer of sodium bicarbonate in the nation, claims that the new facility will double their manufacturing capabilities to 250,000 tons annually, up from 125,000 tons. The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports that one-third of the new facility is already in operation, according to plant manager Bob Warneke.

Sodium bicarbonate is used in many household products, including baking powder, baking soda, toothpaste, animal feed, pharmaceutical products, and several industrial processes. The product is mined from deposits of nahcolite and transported to the factory, where it is refined into a powder form and shipped out. Natural Soda’s deposits of nahcolite lie adjacent to deposits of oil shale and the company has also started efforts to mine oil shale.  The Bureau of Land Management leased 160 acres of land to Natural Soda to experimentally develop oil shale last December and the company has been moving forward on their efforts to mine oil shale.

The company has previously stated that they plan on mining oil shale far below aquifer levels in order to avoid groundwater contamination. If the company is capable of proving to the Bureau of Land Management that they can produce oil shale environmentally and economically responsibly, then the BLM will grant them a commercial lease to being selling their product and expand the size of their lease.

Warneke told the Glenwood Springs Post Independent that Natural Soda plans to draft their plans for an oil shale facility and submit them to the BLM by the end of the year, with hopes of starting construction on the plant in 2014. The company does not plan for the oil shale project to be nearly the size of their sodium bicarbonate expansion.

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Major Utah Newspapers Support DOI’s New Oil Shale Plan

News Articles | Posted by rebhan
Apr 19 2013

Two major Utah newspapers, The Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News, have come out in support of the Department of the Interior’s research-first based approach to oil shale. In editorials written this week, both papers mention the negative impact the oil shale industry would have on Utah’s $3.6 billion outdoor recreation industry. The richest oil shale lands in Utah are also some of the most popular destinations for outdoor recreationalists. Hiking trails, biking trails, scenic areas, campgrounds, hunting and fishing areas, and several National Parks all lay within close proximity of rich oil shale lands.

Jason Kieth, author of The Deseret News editorial, argues that the DOI’s research-based approach to oil shale is the most sensible considering the impacts that the industry will have on Utah’s land, water, and economy. Kieth argues that “the research it [the BLM's Oil Shale and Tar Sands Environmental Impact Statement] requires, regarding economic feasibility and environmental responsibility, provides protection for resources that currently support stable, long-term economies and healthy communities.” Kieth also argues that the new plan goes a long ways towards protecting Utah’s outdoor recreation and tourism industry, which would have lost millions of acres of land to oil shale development had the Bush-era oil shale plan remained in place. Kieth is a representative of several outdoor recreation groups, including the Access Fund and Outdoor Alliance.

Erika Pollard also spoke in support of the research-based oil shale plan in her Salt Lake Tribune editorial, arguing that the plan is “a smart-rethinking” of the Bush-era decision and the “reasoned and research-based approach to oil shale development” is what Utah needs. Pollard also argues that the tourism industry is already established in Utah and should not be risked for the sake of an unproven oil shale industry. Pollard is the Southwest Regional Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, who work to protect the nation’s national parks.

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Secretary Salazar Finalizes Research First Approach to Oil Shale

Uncategorized | Posted by rebhan
Mar 22 2013

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has finalized a plan to open 700,000 acres of land in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah for oil shale research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) leases, as well as 130,000 acres in Utah for potential tar sand leases. The plan is in line with previous decisions made by the Department of the Interior on oil shale following a lawsuit by a coalition of environmental groups against the 2008 Oil Shale and Tar Sands Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. That plan, made under the waning days of the Bush Administration, made 2 million acres available for commercial oil shale leasing. The lawsuit filed by the environmental coalition ended in a settlement where the Department of the Interior agreed to take a “fresh look” at leasing oil shale lands.

The new approach to oil shale under Secretary Salazar is focused on research first. The Department of the Interior wants to make less land available for leasing and offer RD&D leases to ensure that the oil shale industry proves that oil shale is both environmentally and economically viable before opening public lands to the companies. The Department of the Interior has said that if oil shale companies prove their technology, then they will make more land available for commercial oil shale leasing.

“This plan maintains a strong focus on research and development to promote new technologies that may eventually lead to safe and responsible commercial development of these domestic energy resources,” Secretary Salazar said. “It will help ensure that we acquire critically important information about these technologies and their potential effects on the landscape, especially our scarce water resources in the West.” Water is an important issue with oil shale since most of the development will take place in arid areas and significant amounts of water is necessary to produce oil shale.

The research first approach is popular amongst farmers, sportsmen, environmentalists, and some western water advocacy groups. The Rocky Mountain Farmers Union praised the approach, saying the plan “protects our farms and our food” and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance supports the stance because they believe that oil shale is far too dangerous for the natural environment to pursue.

Industry advocates, meanwhile, claim that the plan does not open up enough land or the best land for oil shale development and that there are too many loop holes for the industry to jump through in order to make oil shale work. Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of governmental and public affairs at the Western Energy Alliance, said that, “it’s more of the restrictive energy policies that we’ve seen out of this administration the last four years.” U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo) also criticized the administration in a prepared statement, saying that if the (Obama) Administration “is serious about creating jobs and increasing American energy production, they will scrap this plan and instead fully support producing our oil shale resources.” Nationally, the United States is producing more domestic oil and gas than at any time in the last two decades and domestic production has risen each of the last four years. Foreign imports of oil are at their lowest point since 1988, according to the Department of the Interior press release.

The revisions to oil shale rules are available for public commenting for the next 60 days. Anybody interested in viewing or commenting on the new regulations can do so here.

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Rocky Mountain PBS Focuses on Oil Shale

Uncategorized | Posted by jhanson
Jan 11 2013

Tonight’s episode of Colorado State of Mind, the Emmy-winning local affairs news program hosted by Cynthia Hessin on Rocky Mountain PBS, explores oil shale in Colorado. The program features Center of the American West Research Faculty Jason Hanson and David Ableson of Western Resource Advocates discussing what oil shale is (and isn’t), the prospects for development of an oil shale industry on the Western Slope, and what such development might mean for the people and environment of Colorado. You can view the full episode (and a longish web extra) on the show’s website.

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Denver City Council Supports BLM Oil Shale Plan

Uncategorized | Posted by rebhan
Dec 17 2012

The Denver City Council voted on Monday on a proclamation to support the Bureau of Land Management’s “research first” approach to oil shale, The Denver Post reports. The proclamation, which is simply a statement of support and not a law, cites oil shale’s threats to Denver’s water supply as the primary reason the city council support the BLM’s scaled-back approach to oil shale.

Denver City Council resolutions are rarely controversial and almost always unanimous, but the council’s oil shale decision came after an hour-long debate with two members voting against the measure and two abstaining.

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BLM Oil Shale Plan Protested From Both Sides

Uncategorized | Posted by rebhan
Dec 11 2012

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) received formal protests from Garfield County and from a coalition of environmental advocacy groups this past week for the recently passed oil shale plan, although the protests raise very different complaints. The county commissioners believe the plan does not make enough land available for leasing, while the environmental groups allege that the plan opens up too much land to potential development.

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Enefit’s New Estonian Power Plant Encounters Delays

Uncategorized | Posted by rebhan
Nov 28 2012

An Estonian energy company is delaying the opening of the world’s largest oil shale refining plant until next year due to an unspecified incident during the startup process, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. Company officials report that the Eesti Energy AS, known as Enefit in the US, have addressed the problem and commissioning is once again underway for the Enefit 280 plant.

Estonia is currently the only nation in the world that relies extensively on oil shale for electricity production. The small Baltic nation with a fast-growing economy hopes to move towards more renewable energy options in the next few decades but will continue to rely on oil shale for the majority of their oil shale production in the short term.

To read the entire Bloomberg Businessweek article click here.

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Oil Shale in an Energy Self-Sufficient Nation

News Articles, Politics, Regulations | Posted by rebhan
Nov 12 2012

Combining increased fuel production and reduced oil consumption, the United States is leading a “sweeping transformation” in worldwide energy production and will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer by 2017, the International Energy Agency said Monday. If the projection comes near being accurate, it may cast a shadow over plans to develop an oil shale industry in the Western US.

The IEA, a Paris-based agency providing energy policy analysis, projects that the US will become “all but self-sufficient” in energy within the next twenty-years. “North America is at the forefront of a sweeping transformation in oil and gas production that will affect all regions of the world, yet the potential also exists for a similarly transformative shift in global energy efficiency,” said Maria van der Hoeven, IEA’s Executive Director.

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BLM Scales Back Oil Shale Development in Final PEIS

Ecology, Politics, Regulations | Posted by rebhan
Nov 09 2012

The Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Interior have chosen to dramatically reduce the amount of land allocated to the oil shale industry in Shale Country. After months of public comments and hearings concerning the 2012 Oil Shale and Tar Sands Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), the BLM chose Alternative 2(b) as their Preferred Plan, which makes 667,000 acres available for oil shale leasing, down from nearly 2 million acres made available in 2008. The companies will also have to follow the Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D)  process before obtaining a commercial lease.

Following thousands of pages of public comments, the BLM chose to reduce the amount of land made available to the oil shale industry in large part because of environmental concerns over the yet unproven industry. Environmental groups raised concerns about the opening and exploitation of public lands and concerns about how much water the industry would use. Several big-game hunting associations also raised concerns about the impact of the industry on hunting and outdoor recreation.

A coalition of environmental groups filed suit against the previous plan, made under the waning days of the Bush Administration, which had opened nearly 2 million acres of land for commercial oil shale development. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (D) agreed to take a “fresh-look” at oil shale following the settlement. Alternative 2(b), the plan ultimately chosen by the BLM, had been their preferred alternative from the beginning.

We will have more on what the new PEIS means for Westerners in the coming weeks, as well as reaction from the oil shale industry and environmentalists. To read the Final Environmental  Impact statement, visit http://ostseis.anl.gov/documents/peis2012/.

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Western Communities Wrangle with Oil Shale and its Impacts

Media, News Articles, Politics, Regulations, Water | Posted by rebhan
Oct 24 2012

Western communities along the Colorado River are expressing their concerns about the potential impact of oil shale extraction on their water quality. Some organizations, meanwhile, are claiming that concerns about the industry’s environmental impact are overblown. The Associated Press reports that communities in Nevada and Arizona, as well as Colorado, have sent letters to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar expressing their concerns about the potential growth of the oil shale industry in Colorado.

Nevada state lawmakers Peggy Pierce and Tick Segerblom along with Arizona House Minority Whip Leader Anna Toyar and Arizona Corporate Commission member Paul Newmen sent a letter telling Sec. Salazar that “we believe that a comprehensive study of the cumulative impacts of oil shale development to the Colorado River basin should be conducted before the BLM considers commercial leasing of  public lands.” The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is currently in the final stages of deciding how much public land in the West will be opened to oil shale development.

Several organizations, including Club 20 and the Colorado River Conservation District, are promoting the merits of the oil shale industry and want to quell fears that many residents and politicians have about the industry. Club 20, a coalition of leaders representing Western Colorado, supports the 2008 Bush-era plan to open up nearly 2 million acres of oil shale land because it “established a reasonable and thoughtful approach to the development of Oil Shale resources in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah,” according to their press release.

Club 20’s stance has been criticized by some because it may have emerged form a mid-October press event that touted the 2008 plan. The event, sponsored by the Environmentally Conscious Consumers of Oil Shale, also included the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, who also supports the 2008 plan. A coalition of environmental groups filed suit against the 2008 plan and the Bureau of Land Management is currently working on a new Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The preferred alternative in the 2012 PEIS would drastically reduce the amount of land made available to commercial oil shale leasing.

Continue reading to hear from opponents of oil shale development as well as a company who claims to be ready to produce within the decade.

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