• Why Oil Shale?
• Welcome to Shale Country
  • What is Oil Shale?
  • How Many Rocks Fit in a Barrel?
  • The Answer to the Energy Crisis?
• Brief History of Oil Shale
  • Early History
  • The First Boom
  • The Mineral Leasing Act
  • The First Bust
  • Waiting for the Next Boom
• Engineering a Boom
  • Shale Country Real Estate
  • Private Lands in Shale Country
  • Shale for Sale
  • "Boom" Goes Boink?
  • How to Make a Mining Boom
  • The Second Boom Arrives
  • Black Sunday
• We'll Get it Right Next Time
  • 2005 Energy Policy Act
  • RD&D Leases
  • Commercial Leases
  • Show Me the Money
• Managing the Next Boom
  • Why the Time Might Be Right
  • Environmental Impacts
  • People
  • Land & Ecology
  • Water
  • Air
• What's Next in Shale Country?
• Recent Developments
• Notes & Resources
  • Acknowledgments & Credits
  • Endnotes
  • Recommended Readings

© 2008 Center of the American West

• 1. This anecdote is widely repeated. See, for example, "Digging into Shale's Rocky Past," Shale Country (Oct 1975): 20; Colorado Geologic Survey, "Oil Shale - Enormous Potential But...?" (PDF) RockTalk 7, no 2 (April 2004): 13-15. Today one of the peaks above Parachute is named after Callahan.

• 2. James T. Bartis, Rom LaTourrette, Lloyd Dixon, et al., Oil Shale Development in the United States: Prospects and Policy Issues (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2005), 5-9; BLM,"About Oil Shale, "Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing Programmatic EIS Information Center; US Energy Information Administration, "Petroleum Basic Statistics" (July 2008). The US currently produces just over 5 million barrels of oil a day from domestic sources, according to the EIA.

• 3. Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 5-9.

• 4. In addition to the specific citations listed in the notes below, information on the early history of the oil shale industry in this section was synthesized from Victor Clifton Alderson, The Oil Shale Industry (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Co, 1920), 15-45; Paul L. Russell, History of Western Oil Shale (East Brunswick, NJ: The Center for Professional Advancement, 1980), 5-114; Andrew Gulliford, Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale (Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press, 2003), 1-84; David W. Miller, "The Historical Development of the Oil and Gas Laws of the United States," California Law Review 51 (1963): 506-34; "Digging into Shale's Rocky Past," Shale Country (Oct 1975): 20; and Colorado Geological Survey, "Oil Shale - Enormous Potential But...?" (PDF) RockTalk 7, no. 2 (April 2004): 13-15.

• 5. Alderson, Oil Shale Industry, 26-7, 33-45; Russell, History of Western Oil Shale, 3, 85-7; "History," Shale Country 5, no 4 special edition (1983), 2; European Academies Science Advisory Council, "A Study on the EU Oil Shale Industry - Viewed in the Light of the Estonian Experience" (May 2007), 15-6. Russell provides an excellent summary of what is known about the Mormon Retort.

• 6. Quoted in Russell, History of Western Oil Shale, 5. Wilson's presidential authority to withdraw public lands from mineral entry had been affirmed by the US Supreme Court the year before in United States v. Midwest Oil Company.

• 7. See Guy Elliott Mitchell, "Billions of Barrels of Oil Locked Up in Rocks," National Geographic 33, no. 2 (Feb. 1918): 195-6; and Floyd W. Parsons, "Oil From Shale: Everybody's Business," Saturday Evening Post (20 March 1920). These and a thorough list of additional articles on the topic are cited in Andrew Gulliford, Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale (Boulder, CO: University of Colorado Press, 2003), 54, 247-8, n.2 and 14.

• 8. Russell, History of Western Oil Shale; Gulliford, Boomtown Blues.

• 9. Charles Wilkinson provides a helpful and concise overview of the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act in Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1992), 52-8. See also Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 26-7. Permission to mine is awarded through a competitive bidding process that usually includes bonus payments, and royalties that typically amount to between one eighth and one sixth of total revenues for oil production must be paid on the extracted resource. Typically, the lease is awarded to the qualified bidder submitting the highest bonus bid, since royalties are usually fixed by the BLM in advance. In addition to these provisions for compensation to the public for mineral extraction, the MLA also provides land managers with much greater authority to regulate the extraction process. In keeping with its authority to stipulate special protections for competing resources and the environment, federal officials often prescribe construction standards and access routes to minimize environmental disturbance.

• 10. Executive Order No. 5327, April 15, 1930; quoted in Robert P. Baker and Robert D. Mulford, "Problems and Policies in Oil Shale Development," Stanford Law Review 19, no. 1. (Nov. 1966): 194-5; Anne Wasko, "A Look at Shale Country - January 1981," Shale Country (Jan. 1981): 5.

• 11. Russell, History of Western Oil Shale, 103-7; Wasko, "A Look at Shale Country - January 1981," 5.

• 12. Only a small percentage of the oil shale lands are split estates. See Tables 2.3.3-1 and 2.3.3-2 in BLM, Proposed Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resource Management Plan Amendments to Address Land Use Allocations in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (hereafter Final PEIS), 2-27, 2-32.

• 13. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 61-2, 104; Colorado Geological Survey, "Oil Shale - Enormous Potential But...?" (PDF) 14; Russell, History of Western Oil Shale, 10; Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 9; Mike McKibben, "Officials' opinions on oil shale mixed," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 20 December 2007.

• 14. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 61-2, 104; Senator Ken Salazar (now Secretary of the Interior) supplied the 200,000-acre figure for private oil shale holdings in "Heedless Rush to Oil Shale," Denver Post, 15 July 2008; Larry McCown is quoted in Mike McKibben, "Officials' opinions on oil shale mixed," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 20 December 2007.

• 15. Russell, History of Western Oil Shale, 117-8; P.A. Petzrick, "Oil Shale - An Ace in the Hole for National Security," Shale Country (Oct 1975): 18-9; Alys Novak, "Oil Shale - 1976: Review/Preview," Shale Country, 5. A joint bid of $210.3 million from Standard Oil Company of Indiana and Gulf Oil Corporation won tract C-a. Tract C-b was leased for $117.8 million by a consortium of companies that included Atlantic Richfield (Arco), Ashland Oil, Shell Oil, and TOSCO. In Utah, the U-a tract went to a partnership of Sun Oil and Phillips Petroleum for $75.6 million, and U-b was let to the White River Shale Oil Corporation for $45.1 million. No bids were received for the two less-rich tracts offered in Wyoming (Russell). Both Colorado leases were relinquished in the 1990s.

• 16. The mood in Shale Country during this time was the topic of numerous articles, including year-in-review pieces published in Shale Country just before it suspended publication and first thing after it came back. See Wasko, "A Look at Shale Country - January 1981," 5-6; Novak, "Oil Shale - 1976: Review/Preview," 4-9; "Shale Spins Off Unique Legacy" (editorial statement), Shale Country (Dec. 1976): 1.

• 17. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 93-103. Carter's speech, given at the White House on 18 April 1977, is widely available. The exact amount allotted for the Synthetic Fuels Corporation is hard to pin down; sources range from $12-20 billion, the discrepancies presumably a result of variable funding mechanisms.

• 18. Andrus v. Shell Oil Co. 446, U.S. 657 (1980); Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 61-2. The earlier ruling cited by the court was the Secretary of Interior's decision in the 1927 case of Freeman v. Summers.

• 19. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 46; Patricia Nelson Limerick, William Travis, and Tamar Scoggin, Boom and Bust in the American West (Boulder, CO: Center of the American West, 2002), 9 (PDF).

• 20. "Urban frontier" is a term popularized by Duane Smith, who showed in his book Rocky Mountain Mining Camps: The Urban Frontier, 1860-1901, (Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 1967) that the rapid growth of the towns that sprang up around mineral rushes gave them an urban character distinct from more rural farming and ranching communities elsewhere in the West. Although Smith was writing about nineteenth-century boomtowns, the thesis seems clearly applicable to modern scenarios as well. See also: Duane Allan Smith, "Mining Camps: Myth vs. Reality," Colorado Magazine 44, no. 2 (1967): 93-110.

• 21. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 90-2; Patricia Nelson Limerick, Claudia Puska, et al, What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy (Boulder, CO: Center of the American West, 2002), 18 (PDF).

• 22. Andrew Gulliford, "The Tiger Empties the Tank: The Oil Shale Boom-and-Bust in Colorado," Journal of the West 28, no. 4 (1989): 22; Limerick, What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy, 18-19 (PDF). The original paper, entitled "Social Consequences of Boom Growth in Wyoming" (PDF), was presented by El Dean Kohrs at the 1974 meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, although it was never formally published. For an example of the questions since raised about the legitimacy of Gillette Syndrome, see James G. Thompson, "The Gillette Syndrome: A Myth Revisited?" Wyoming Issues 2, no. 2 (1979): 30-5(PDF); Kenneth P. Wilkinson et al, "Local Social Disruption and Western Energy Development: A Critical Review", Pacific Sociological Review 25, no. 3 (July 1982): 275-96 (PDF). For additional information, Michael S. Coburn has compiled a wealth of data and research on his Sublette County Socioeconomics website.

• 23. Gulliford, "The Tiger Empties the Tank," 22-3; Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 88, 113, 121-3. Although it was circulated around the Western Slope at the time, including at a meeting sponsored by Club 20 in July in Grand Junction, the Exxon white paper, which was officially titled "The Role of Synthetic Fuels in the United States Energy Future," is now difficult to get ahold of. Understandably, the company is not eager to share this printed faux pas, and we have relied here on Andrew Gulliford's rendering of it, which is no doubt accurate but perhaps not cast in the most sympathetic light.

• 24. Robert Wamsley, retired schoolteacher, Rifle, CO, quoted in Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 13.

• 25. Information in these two paragraphs about the boom's projected impact on the Western Slope after Exxon's arrival is drawn from: Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 111-34; Limerick, What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy, 19 (PDF); US Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, "History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938 - 2007"; "Shale Country: Born Again," Shale Country (Jan. 1981): 1-2.

• 26. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 153-94; Congressional Testimony by Jim Evans, Executive Director Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, "A Local Government Perspective on Federal Oil Shale Research and Development Efforts,", before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Washington, D.C. (12 April 2005); Nicholas Lemann, "Grand Junction Can't Win for Losing," Atlantic Monthly 255, no. 18 (April 1985): 18-28. In his Senate testimony, Jim Evans, then Executive Director of the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, noted that "At the peak of the cycle, the combined population of the 2 most impacted counties (Garfield and Mesa) increased from 1981 to 1983 by 12%, from 112.0 thousand to 125.6 thousand. Then in the next 2 years the combined population dropped back to 111.8 thousand."

• 27. Congressional Testimony By Jim Evans, Executive Director Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, "A Local Government Perspective on Federal Oil Shale Research and Development Efforts," Before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Washington, DC (12 April 2005); Nicholas Lemann, "Grand Junction Can't Win for Losing," Atlantic Monthly 255, no. 18 (April 1985): 18-28.

• 28. BLM, Final PEIS, 1.9-10; BLM, "Interior Department Issues Oil Shale Research, Development and Demonstration Leases for Public Lands in Colorado" (15 December 2006); BLM, "Interior Department Issues Oil Shale Research, Development and Demonstration Lease for Public Lands in Utah" (28 June 2007). Originally, the BLM announced 8 bids worthy of further consideration ("BLM Announces Results of Review of Oil Shale Research Nominations" [17 January 2006]), but this number was ultimately paired down to 6. Of these 6, the 5 in Colorado received their leases on January 1, 2007, and the one in Utah received its go-ahead on July 1, 2007. The 160-acre size of their initial RD&D lease tracts is minimal in the overall scope of potential oil shale developments, but, for perspective, these small parcels are the same size at the quarter-sections originally surveyed and allotted to Western homesteaders by the General Land Office.

• 29. Shell: Royal Dutch Shell, "Welcome to the Mahogany Research Project"; BLM, Environmental Assessment: Shell - CO-110-2006-117-EA (2006), 5-9; Gary Harmon, "Shell Wants to Test Oil Shale Technology in Tiny Mideast Nation," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 11 Aug. 2008. AMSO: American Shale Oil, "Our Plan"; BLM, Environmental Assessment: EGL Resources - CO-110-2006-118-EA (2006), 5-10. Chevron: BLM, Environmental Assessment: Chevron Oil Shale Research, Development, and Demonstration - CO-110-2006-120-EA (2006), 5-10; Dennis Webb, "Chevron Studying Chemistry to Develop Oil Shale Underground: Plant 10 Years Out," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2008. For specific information on Chevron, we have also relied on a presentation by Robert Lestz, Oil Shale Technology Manager at Chevron, on the in situ process his team is developing (23 October 2007). OSEC: Oil Shale Exploration Company website; Associated Press, "Utah Company Says Oil Shale Technology Is Ready to Go," Glenwood Springs Post Independent, 18 June 2008. General: In addition to company-specific resources, overviews of the processes being explored throughout the industry can be found in Peter M. Crawford and Emily Knaus, Secure Fuels from Domestic Resources (Washington DC: US Department of Energy, June 2007)( PDF); Bobby Magill, "Many Methods, One Basic Idea Shape New Oil-Shale Technology," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 30 April 2007; Joe Hanel, "Big Oil Casts Shadow over Colorado's Water Future," Durango Herald, 6 January 2008; Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 11-23; BLM, Final PEIS, "Appendix A," A.21-30.

• 30. "Senator Salazar Lauds Oil Shale Limitations in Omnibus Bill," press release, 17 December 2007; HR 2764, section 433; Thomas Burr, "Salazar: Oil Shale Development on the Table," Salt Lake City Tribune, 22 February 2009; "Secretary Salazar to Offer a New Round of Oil Shale Research, Development and Demonstration Leases," Department of Interior news release, 25 February 2009.

• 31. BLM, "Oil Shale Management - General; Final Rules" (18 November 2008) (PDF); Mark Jaffe, "Oil-Shale Royalties Strike Rich Vein of Debate," Denver Post, 18 November 2008; Mark Jaffe, "Salazar Halts Oil Shale Leases," Denver Post, 26 February 2009; Phillip Yates, "Oil Shale Remains in the Crosshairs," Glenwood Springs (CO) Post Independent, 14 December 2008; "Secretary Salazar to Offer a New Round of Oil Shale Research, Development and Demonstration Leases," Department of Interior news release, 25 February 2009.

• 32. Peter M. Crawford and Emily Knaus, Secure Fuels from Domestic Resources (Washington DC: US Department of Energy, June 2007), 28-9 (PDF); Bobby Magill, "Many Methods, One Basic Idea Shape New Oil-Shale Technology," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 30 April 2007; Information about Red Leaf and their proprietary oil shale technology, EcoShale, can be found at the company's website; Andy Vuong, "Schlumberger Buying Land for Oil Field Services," Denver Post, 22 February 2008; "Raytheon Technology Tapped by Schlumberger to Extract Oil from Shale," Ratheon press release, 23 January 2008; Phillip Yates, "Oil Shale Remains in the Crosshairs," Glenwood Springs (CO) Post Independent, 14 December 2008.

• 33. The Consolidated Appropriations Bill passed at the end of 2007 contained a provision that reduced the amount of federal oil shale royalties that are returned to the states where the development occurs from 50% to 48%. The best overview of state financial mechanisms related to oil shale can be found in two recent performance audit reports by the Office of the State Auditor, Severance Tax: Department of Revenue, Department of Natural Resources (PDF) (June 2006), and Severance Tax Direct Distribution Payments: Department of Local Affairs (PDF)(August 2007).

• 34. For the companies' expressed committment to conducting the next round of oil shale development the "right way," with careful attention to environmental and community impacts, see statements on the Shell and AMSO websites. We have also heard personal assurances that oil shale must be "done right" this time from Chevron officials such as Robert Lestz and Sean Norris and Shell officials Tracy Boyd and Gale Norton. The arguments for the development of oil shale are repeated by many proponents, but the most comprehensive case for oil shale was made by the Task Force for Unconventional Fuels in America's Strategic Unconventional Fuels vol. 1-3 (Sept 2007), available for download here. See also Harry R. Johnson, Peter M. Crawford, and James W. Bunger for the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Petroleum Reserves, Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves, Strategic Significance of America's Oil Shale Resource vol. 1-2 (March 2004), available for download here; James W. Bunger, Peter M. Crawford, Harry R. Johnson, "Is Oil Shale America's Answer to Peak-Oil Challenge?" Oil and Gas Journal (9 Aug. 2004): 16-24 (PDF); and others. Tracy Boyd of Shell quoted in Jerd Smith, "Shell Stakes Claim on Yampa River," Rocky Mountain News, 8 January 2009.

• 35. BLM, Final PEIS, quote on page 4-156. The document's second chapter discusses the alternatives considered by the BLM. The entire fourth chapter of the PEIS deals with the wide range of possible impacts from oil shale development discussed in the preceding paragraphs.

• 36. See, for example, the opposition positions represented on the Western Colorado Congress's background information page and position paper on oil shale, as well as Randy Udall and Steve Andrews, "The Illusive Bonanza: Oil Shale in Colorado - Pulling the Sword from the Stone" (Aspen, CO: Community Office for Resource Efficiency, date unspecified) (PDF). For supportive statements, see Jim Evans, Executive Director of the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, "A Local Government Perspective on Federal Oil Shale Research and Development Efforts," testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Washington, DC, 12 April 2005 and Club 20, "Oil Shale, Development and Implementation of a National Strategy," resolution 05-4 EN 02, adopted 1 April 2005 and amended 30 March and 8 September 2006.

• 37. Gulliford, Boomtown Blues, 92; Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 43.

• 38. Examples and quotes about the impact of the current oil and gas boom were compiled from: Andy Vuong, "Western Slope Finds an Economic Oasis," Denver Post, 29 June 2008; Mike Saccone, "Mesa, neighboring counties experience population surge," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 22 July 2007; Burt Hubbard, "State coping with fallout created by oil-gas boom," Rocky Mountain News (Denver), 25 July 2007; Judith Kohler, "Ridin' the boom in Rifle," Casper Star Tribune, 2 September 2007; Leslie Robinson, "Rifle Booms Under Record Housing Starts, Construction Projects," Colorado Independent, 29 April 2008; Mike Saccone, "Rifle's rapid growth, high demand push out 'middle class' workers," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 22 July 2007 (includes Mayor Lambert quote); John Gorman, "Property Values Soar from 2006 to 2008," Glenwood Springs Post Independent, 21 April 2009; Steve Raabe, "Grand Junction becomes boom town," Denver Post, 9 June 2007; Anna Maria Basquez, "Median Sale Price on GJ Homes Takes Tumble," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 29 Oct. 2008; Christy Hamrick, "Impacts of an Oil Shale Boom on Local School Districts," presentation at 27th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 16 October 2007; Jesse Smith, Assistant Garfield County Manager, spoke of the rising cost of gravel during his presentation at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop, Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007; Reeves Brown, presentation at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop, Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007.

• 39. At the beginning of 2009, a spate of articles reporting cutbacks in drilling operations appeared in Colorado newspapers. See, for example: Nancy Lofholm, "W. Slope Oil and Gas Tent Folds," Denver Post, 3 February 2009; Gary Harmon and Dennis Webb, "Williams Revises Drilling Cutbacks," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 19 February 2009.

• 40. National Institute on Drug Abuse, Methamphetamine Abuse and Addiction; Patrick Farrell, "Meth Fuels the West's Oil and Gas Boom," High Country News, 3 October 2005; Meth-Free Mesa County (Mesa County Meth Task Force); Steve Raabe, "Grand Junction becomes boom town," Denver Post, 9 June 2007; LeRoy Standish, "DA's office to hire meth prosecutor, statistician," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 30 October 2007; Amy Hamilton, "Few Felony Cases Filed in Mesa County," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 31 December 2008. The ingredients in meth include ephedrine or pseudoephedrine (a common decongestant found in cold tablets) in combination with iodine crystals, battery acid, red phosphorous, and anhydrous ammonia. It can be formulated as a liquid, a powder, a waxy solid (glass), or a clear rock (ice).

• 41. In a panel discussion at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop in Glenwood Springs, CO, on 23 October 2007, Mayor of Rifle Keith Lambert and Assistant Garfield County Supervisor Jesse Smith expressed their belief that, if the estimated timeline of 2030-35 for a commercial-scale oil shale industry is correct, it will overlap with current oil and gas activities. David Olsen commented on the importance of socioeconomic issues to the developing industry in his presentation on "Summary Oil Shale Environmental Issues and Research Needs" at the 27th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, 16 October 2007.

• 42. Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 35-7; BLM, Final PEIS, 3-150-175. The BLM's PEIS provides helpful individual overviews of a number of the at-risk species in Shale Country.

• 43. We are indebted to Carl and Jane Bock of the University of Colorado for presenting much of the information in this report about the potential ecological impacts of oil shale development in the Piceance Basin at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop in Glenwood Springs, CO, on 22 October 2007. They also suggest the following sources for a fuller treatment of the issues than there was room to give in this overview. For a general overview of ecosystems of the region: P.L. Fradkin, Sagebrush Country: Land and the American West (New York: Knopf, 1989); M.L. Floyd, D. Hanna, W.H. Romme, and M. Colyer, eds., Ancient Pinon-Juniper Woodlands: A Natural History of Mesa Verde Country (Niwot, CO: University of Colorado Press, 2003); C.A. Beidleman, Partners in Flight Land Conservation Plan for Colorado (Estes Park, CO: Colorado Partners in Flight, 2000), available at www.blm.gov/wildlife/plan/pl-co-10.pdf. On the vulnerability of these ecosystems compared to those of the Great Plains: R.N. Mack and J.M. Thompson, "Evolution in Steppe with Few Large, Hooved Mammals," American Naturalist 119, no. 6 (1982): 757-73. On microbiotic crusts: J. Blenap, "The World at Your Feet: Desert Biological Soil Crusts," Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1, no. 4 (2003): 181-9; R.D. Evans and J.R. Joansen, "Microbiotic Crusts and Ecosystem Processes," Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 18, no. 2 (1999): 183-225. On the Sagebrush Steppe, the Cheatgrass fire cycle, and likely impacts on plants and wildlife: W.L. Baker, "Fire and Restoration of Sagebrush Ecosystems," Wildlife Society Bulletin 34, no. 1 (2006): 177-85; S.T. Knick, D.S. Dobkin, J.T. Rotenberry, et al., "Teetering on the Edge or Too Late? Conservation and Research Issues for Avifauna of Sagebrush Habitats," Condor 105, no. 4 (2003): 611-34; L.J. Sperry, J. Belnap, and R.D. Evans, "Bromus tectorum Invasion Alters Nitrogen Dynamics in an Undisturbed Arid Grassland Ecosystem," Ecology 87, no. 3 (2006): 603-15; J.C. Chambers, B.A. Roundy, R.R. Blank, et al., "What Makes Great Basin Sagebrush Ecosystems Invasible by Bromus tectorum?" Ecological Monographs 77, no. 1 (2007): 117-45; L.H. Ziska, J.B. Reeves, and B. Blank, "The Impact of Recent Increases in Atmospheric CO2 on Biomass Production and Vegetative Retention of Cheatgrass: Implications for Fire Disturbance," Global Change Biology 11, no. 8 (2007): 1325-32; C.L. Aldridge and M.S. Boyce, "Linking Occurrence and Fitness to Persistence: Habitat-Based Approach for Endangered Greater Sage Grouse," Ecological Applications 17, no. 2 (2007): 508-26; J.A. Crawford, R.A. Olson, N.E. West, et al., "Synthesis Paper - Ecology and Management of Sage Grouse and Sage Grouse Habitat," Journal of Range Management 57, no. 1 (2004): 2-19; W.M. Vander Haegen, "Fragmentation by Agriculture Influences Reproductive Success of Birds in a Shrubsteppe Landscape," Ecological Applications 17, no. 3 (2007): 934-47. On Pinon-Juniper Woodlands and its bird populations: A. Clements, "An Ecosystem Approach to Combat Desertification on the Colorado Plateau," Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 99 (2004): 233-43; C.D. Francis, C.P. Ortega, and J. Hansen, "Nest Site Selection and Success of Three Common Pinon-Juniper Birds in Response to Chronic Industrial Noise Disturbance" (abstract), Annual meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union, Laramie, WY, August 2007; D.C. Pavlacky and S.H. Anderson, "Comparative Habitat Use in a Juniper Woodland Bird Community," Western North American Naturalist 64 (2004): 376-84; ; D.C. Pavlacky and S.H. Anderson, "Habitat Preferences of Pinon-Juniper Specialists Near the Limit of the Geographic Range," Condor 103, no. 2: 322-31.

• 44. Dan Bean, Director of Biological Pest Control and Manager of the Palisade Insectary for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and Kelly Uhing, the State Weed Coordinator for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, presented their views on biocontrol methods for invasive species and noxious weeds - many of which we have gratefully incorporated into the text - at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop, Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007. More information about noxious weeds in Garfield and Rio Blanco Counties can be found at the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Noxious weed is a legal term for an invasive nonnative species that must be controlled by state law.

• 45. We are grateful to Tim Sullivan of the Nature Conservancy of Colorado for discussing the Nature Conservancy's "Conservation by Design" approach at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop in Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007. Our understanding of the nature of balance was confirmed in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc, 1996).

• 46. These comments come from Kurt Schultz's presentation to the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop, Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007. We are grateful that Mr. Schultz made the cold ride out from his mountain camp to join us. For more examples of the tension between energy development and tourism on the Western Slope, see Mark Jaffe, "Energy, Tourism Vie Over Western Slope," Denver Post, 18 Aug. 2008.

• 47. Western Resource Advocates et al, Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources Leasing Programmatic EIS Scoping Comments (PDF), 31 Jan. 2006.

• 48. Norris Hundley Jr., "The West Against Itself: The Colorado River - An Institutional History," in New Courses for the Colorado, ed. Gary Weatherford and F. Lee Brown (University of New Mexico Press, 1996), 9-49; Robert H. Webb, Gregory J. McCabe, Richard Hereford, and Christopher Wilkowske, "Climatic Fluctuations, Drought, and Flow of the Colorado River," US Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2004-3062; US Department of Interior, Record of Decision: Colorado River Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated Operations of Lake Powell and Lake Mead (Dec. 2007) (PDF). Although Lees Ferry is commonly cited in discussions about the "law of the river," as the Colorado River Compact and subsequent agreements are often called, the compact specifically denotes Lee Ferry as the point of division. They are actually two different places a mile apart on the Colorado River. Lee Ferry is the point of the hydrologic divide, while Lees Ferry, a mile upstream, is where the US Geological Survey maintains a stream gage (which could not be installed at the actual divide for logistical reasons). Between these two points, the Paria River enters the Colorado, and its flow is added to that measured at Lees Ferry to calculate the upper basin's total water delivery. Both places are named for controversial pioneer ferry operator John D. Lee, who homesteaded along the river after being excommunicated from the Mormon Church and exiled by Brigham Young for his alleged role in the 1857 massacre of a wagon train of 120 non-Mormons at Mountain Meadows in Southern Utah. Lee was executed in 1877, but his wife Emma continued to run the operation until the Mormon Church bought it from her in 1879, sending another church member to run Lees Ferry. (See Western Water Assessment [a joint venture between the University of Colorado and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], "The Compact and Lees Ferry"; National Park Service, "Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: Lees Ferry History." )

• 49. Western Water Assessment, "The Compact and Lees Ferry."

• 50. Joe Hanel, "Big Oil casts shadow over Colorado's water future," Durango Herald, 6 January 2008; Gary Harmon, "Shell Seeks Yampa River Water for Oil-Shale Plans," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 6 January 2009; Mark Jaffe, "Shell Eyes Yampa River," Denver Post, 7 January 2009; Jerd Smith, "Shell Stakes Claim on Yampa River," Rocky Mountain News, 8 January 2009; Lawrence J. MacDonnel, Water on the Rocks: Oil Shale Water Rights in Colorado (Boulder, CO: Western Resource Advocates, 2009); Mark Jaffe, "Oil Shale Plans Create Ripple," Denver Post, 19 March 2009. Chevron, Shell, and other companies in Shale Country acquired many of their water rights during previous booms and have maintained them to the present. Most of the rights date to the 1950s and '60s and are conditional, as opposed to absolute, meaning that they preserve the holder's seniority under the law of prior appropriation but cannot be utilized until a state water court decrees them available for use. Holders of these conditional rights must undergo a diligence test in court every 6 years in court to demonstrate that they still intend to use the water. See also US Department of Energy, Office of Petroleum Resources, "Fact Sheet: Oil Shale Water Resources" (PDF).

• 51. We are grateful to Cathy J. Wilson of Los Alamos National Laboratory for sharing her thoughts about the water requirements of energy development and to Robert Lestz, the Oil Shale Technology Manager at Chevron, for providing an overview of the in situ process his team is developing at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop, Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007. See also Cathy J. Wilson and Jean Foster, "Estimating Water Resource Demands and Availability for Oil Shale Development," presented at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, 31 Oct. 2007; Western Resource Advocates, Scoping Comments (PDF), 19-26; BLM, Final PEIS, 4-33.

• 52. We are greatful to Robert Lestz of Chevron for explaining his company's ambition to become a "net producer" of water at the Center of the American West's Chevron Oil Shale Workshop, Glenwood Springs, CO, 23 October 2007. The claim is based on the idea that more water will be produced by pumping it out of a targeted underground shale zone than will be required for Chevron's production process.

• 53. Western Resource Advocates, Scoping Comments (PDF), 19-26. Western Resource Advocates cites a BLM study that the surface disturbance, reduced flows, and long-term aquifer disruption created by energy development would result in a loss of up to 35% of the total population of Colorado River cutthroat. However, in 2007 the US Fish and Wildlife Service found that traditional oil and gas development posed little threat to the Colorado River cutthroat and that population numbers were healthy, leading the agency to decline listing the trout as an endangered species.

• 54. Gregg Garfin and Melanie Lenart, "Climate Change Effects on Southwest Water Resources," (PDF) Southwest Hydrology 6, no. 1 (January/Feburary 2007): 16-7, 34; Martin Hoerling and Jon Eischeid, "Past Peak Water in the Southwest," (PDF) Southwest Hydrology 6, no. 1 (January/Feburary 2007): 18-9, 35; Bobby Magill, "Water at risk from climate change," Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 23 August 2007; Steve Lipsher, "Strain on Colorado water predicted," Denver Post, 23 August 2007; Wilson, "Estimating Water Resource Demands and Availability for Oil Shale Development" (presentation); BLM, Final PEIS, 4-41, 6-93; Tim Barnett and Eric Pierce, "When Will Lake Mead Go Dry?" Water Resources Journal (29 March 2008), (free abstract); Eric Kuhn, "Certainty in Uncertain Times: Policy Implications of the Colorado River Compact"; Eric Kuhn, "The Colorado River's Uncertain Future: How Climate Change May Affect Future Planning Decisions on the Colorado River," (PDF); Eric Kuhn, The Colorado River: The Quest for Certainty on a Diminishing River (Roundtable edition, 8 May 2007), 109 (PDF); Matt Jenkins, "How Low Will It Go?" High Country News 41, no. 4 (2 March 2009). It is notable that the BLM dialed down the level of certainty it expressed about how much water is available for oil shale between the publication of the Draft PEIS and the Final PEIS. In the Final PEIS, the BLM cited Cathy Wilson's work and offered the conclusion that "Water requirements to support oil shale development are still unknown, but it is known that general water availability has become more constrained, and not merely from a legal appropriation standpoint. There is the likelihood that present senior water rights would be purchased to either support development and/or obtain water in a specific location" (6-121). Compare that statement to this passage in the Draft PEIS: "Water requirements to support oil shale development are still unknown, but it is known that general water availability has become more constrained, and not merely from a legal appropriation standpoint. However, there is water available in the Colorado River system in the 3 basin states that could be used to support oil shale development. Additionally, there is the likelihood that present senior water rights would be purchased to either support development and/or obtain water in a specific location" (emphasis added, 6-93).

• 55. Natural deep groundwater in the Piceance Basin is saline, as demonstrated by S.G. Robson and G.J. Saulnier Jr., Hydrogeochemistry and simulated solute transport, Piceance Basin, northwestern Colorado, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 0F 80-72 (1980). Spent oil shale retort also leaches dissolved solids, primarily sodium carbonate (J.L Freerer, A.G. Miller, W.F. Ramirez, "X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy determination of a conceptual leaching model of retorted oil shale," Environmental Science and Technology 20, no. 7 [1986]: 695-702), dissolved organic carbon (J. Leenheer and H.A. Stubner, "Migration through soil of organic solutes in an oil shale process water," Environmental Science and Technology 15, no. 12 [1981]: 1467-75), sulfate (K.G. Stollenwerk, "Geochemistry of leachate from retorted and unretorted Colorado oil shale," ([doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1980]), and molybdenum and fluoride (K.G. Stollenwerk and D.D. Runnells, "Leachabiltiy of arsenic, selenium, molybdenum, boron, and fluoride from retorted oil shale," proceedings of the Pacific Area Engineering Conference [Denver, CO] 2, no 2 [1977]: 1023-30).

• 56. Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 40-2; Western Resource Advocates, Scoping Comments (PDF), 26-31; "What's the rush on oil shale?" (editorial), Denver Post, 17 May 2007; Kim McGuire, "No one is neutral in a water fight," "Uncharted waters for Wellington," "Battle looms over water quality" (3-part series), Denver Post, 12-14 August 2007.

• 57. BLM, Final PEIS, 3-102-109, Table 3.5.3-3; Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 38.

• 58. Nancy Lofholm, "Oil and gas well-ness checkup," Denver Post, 6 May 2007.

• 59. Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 21, 38-40; Western Resource Advocates, Scoping Comments (PDF), 31-4; Steve Lipsher, "Drilling Plan for Vermillion Basin Delayed," Denver Post, 24 August 2007.

• 60. Bartis, Oil Shale Development in the United States, 38-40; Western Resource Advocates, Scoping Comments (PDF), 31-4.

• 61. Western Resource Advocates claims that this is an old saying even if it's not exactly a well-known conversational fixture.