The Rocky admits in an editorial on May 19th that the new technologies needed to extract oil from the shale in a responsible manner are "not ready for prime time." Still the Rocky objects to current regulations designed to protect Federal lands from reckless exploration by. It's a nonsensical position that seems to be borne out of spite for Senator Salazar and Governor Ritter than any real grasp of the issues at hand.
Today Sheldon takes the Rocky editorial board to task,
Billions of taxpayer and investor dollars have been spent to develop a commercially feasible method to squeeze fuel out of oil shale, yet the extraction technology remains in its infancy. The Rocky argues that the Department of the Interior should be allowed to issue regulations for a process that even the oil industry admits may never become commercially viable.
To borrow from the editorial, it was the oil industry that "stuck a fork" in oil shale development once before, in the 1980s. Failed oil shale development in Colorado remains a scar on the landscape and a painful economic legacy for many communities.
That is why cities and counties on Colorado's Western Slope are urging Congress to get the facts before making decisions that could undermine local economies and divert limited water supplies away from ranching, agriculture and recreation toward speculative development.
The Rocky of course completely ignored all of the past history and the content of the objections to new attempts at oil shale exploration. Instead they choose to mislead and misinform while grinding a political axe against those who clearly better understand the issues at hand.
We're not going to drill our way out of this and we shouldn't destroy Western lands and our precious water resources in the pursuit of speculative and unproven "solutions." It's time the Rocky editorial board stops pursuing an easy way out of our oil crisis and begins looking at multi-faceted solutions.
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