Colorado congressmen continue putting donors before families

May 16, 2012 Leave a comment

Matt Garrington, Denver-based co-director of The Checks and Balances Project, offered the following statement and facts regarding today’s markup of three bills sponsored by Colorado House Republicans that would create more giveaways to the oil and gas industry: H.R. 4381, H.R. 4382 and H.R. 4383.

“Reps. Doug Lamborn, Scott Tipton, and Mike Coffman should have been cast in the Three Stooges remake, because they certainly know how to put on a show for Big Oil.

“Unfortunately, the legislation introduced today is no laughing matter. These bills would cut the public out of controversial decisions on public lands and allow industry to skirt clean air and water protections.

“Politicians should stop joking and get serious about America’s energy future. We should be ending special tax breaks to Big Oil and reinvesting those funds in American energy solutions such as high tech vehicles, requiring oil and gas from public lands and water to stay in America, and cracking down on Wall Street oil speculation.”

WHY THESE BILLS ARE HANDOUTS TO BIG OIL

H.R. 4382, Sponsored by Rep. Coffman (CO-06)

– $198,300[1] in career oil and gas contributions

  • Increases oil and gas company speculation on public lands by requiring the Interior Department to lease at least 25 percent of lands nominated for leasing by the oil and gas industry each year.
  • Ignores the fact that 56% of oil and gas leases – covering 20.8 million acres – lay idle.
  • Prohibits the Interior Department from making common sense decisions about whether leasing decisions should move forward when conflicts arise with other values such as water, wildlife habitat, and outdoor recreation.
  • Eliminates oil and gas leasing reforms which have reduced conflicts and litigation over drilling, ensured stronger conservation measures are implemented alongside responsible energy development, and provided a seat at the table for local government, outdoor recreation businesses, and other stakeholders.

H.R. 4383, Sponsored by Rep. Lamborn (CO-05)

– $137,962[2] in career oil and gas contributions

  • Puts arbitrary deadlines on the permit approval process, especially given the fact that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continually issues far more drilling permits than the number of new wells industry drills on federal lands.
  • Establishes a $5,000 administrative fee for protests to leases, permits, and right-of-ways as well as creating arbitrary barriers to judicial review effectively cutting the public, state and local governments, and stakeholders wishing to challenge unwise and controversial energy projects.
  • Ignores the fact that industry has failed to develop 6,500 unused drilling permits[3] on federal lands and a total of 7,000 unused drilling permits for both federal and Native American lands.

H.R. 4381, Sponsored by Rep. Tipton (CO-03)

– $113,600[4] in career oil and gas contributions

  • Mandates the Interior Department to develop a new energy development plan every four years – but in doing so may actually set the table against renewable energy by locking-in lands currently available for leasing.
  • Makes energy development the highest use of the land no matter the consequences to scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archeological values.
  • While the bill appears to be “balanced,” it actually requires BLM to “take all necessary actions” to facilitate energy development on the public lands; thus, when viewed as part of the Lamborn and Coffman package, it would roll back oil and gas safeguards and allow oil and gas companies to run roughshod on public lands despite impacts to air quality, water quality, and wildlife habitat.

FACTS ABOUT AMERICAN ENERGY DEVELOPMENT

  • Oil production hit an 8-year high[5] in 2011.
  • Natural gas production was at an all-time high[6].

Drilling activity reached its highest level[7]under the Obama administration than at any point since the Reagan administration.

Filed under Blog, Colorado, Permitting, Statements

After a century’s worth of lessons, government needs to stop picking the same loser

May 10, 2012 Leave a comment

Matt Garrington, Denver-based co-director of The Checks and Balances Project, offered the following statement and facts regarding today’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing discussing the failed energy source, oil shale.

“Chairman Hall and others have argued against clean energy, saying the government shouldn’t pick winners and losers. Yet today they’re holding a hearing on the all-time loser of energy sources, oil shale.

“For over a century, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been sunk into failed oil shale projects. Still, we have never had a viable commercial oil shale industry in this country.

“If the Science committee doesn’t think government should be in the business of picking winners and losers, they should stop wasting the taxpayer money on hearings to try and generate support for losers like oil shale.”

  • In 1981, the Reagan administration approved a $1.2 billion loan guarantee for Exxon’s Colony oil shale project on Colorado’s Western Slope. One year later, on May 2, 1982 – what became known as Black Sunday – Exxon announced it would abandon its involvement in the Colony project. Overnight, about 2,200 employees and thousands of others who had moved to the state to support a burgeoning oil shale industry were out of a job. The devastation to local communities and economies took decades to recover from.
  • Unocal Corp.’s Parachute Creek project has been called the most successful oil shale venture in U.S. history. In this case, successful meant that over a decade, tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies were sunk into the project until Unocal called it quits in 1991. Parachute Creek’s energy production peaked at 1.5 million barrels, but even then Unocal still lost $7 million on the project.
  • The House passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn in February to sink more money into oil shale in return for the promise of royalties that would fund highway repairs. The Congressional Budget Office scored the oil shale bill as having “no effect on revenue,” and days after Rep. Lamborn’s bill passed, Chevron announced it was divesting its oil shale research in Colorado.

Filed under Blog Tagged with , , , , ,

It’s summer, time for flip flops

May 9, 2012 Leave a comment

Gas prices have decreased for the past five weeks, in response to the same sort of global economic factors that cause them to increase. But that answer doesn’t work well for oil company politicians and their spokespeople at Fox News.

Media Matters takes a good look at how Fox News is flip flopping and saying that falling gas prices are bad (hear that American families?), and that global factors do affect gas prices.

Note that Fox is now raising how worldwide economic factors are affecting gas prices, after spending weeks blaming Obama for the price increase since the president’s inauguration. Fox won’t explain that the extremely low price in January 2009 was a short-lived drop caused by the massive economic recession. In fact, last week on Fox News, Varney explicitly said with a straight face that the price increase since the bottom of the recession had “everything to do with” Obama, but the recent drop in gas prices “has nothing to do with” him:

Read the story

Filed under Blog, Gas Prices Tagged with , ,

New Push For Oil Shale Is Continued Failure

May 3, 2012 Leave a comment

On May 1, 1982, nearly 10,000 people worked at Exxon’s Colony Oil Shale project on Colorado’s Western Slope. Twenty-four hours later, Exxon shut the Colony project down. Thousands of people were left jobless and the region’s economy was devastated. This week marks 30 years since the disaster at Colony; what was to become known as Black Sunday.

While Colony is the most dramatic example of the failure of oil shale as a commercial energy source, it’s far from the only one:

  • In 1991, Unocal closed the country’s “most successful” try at an oil shale project in Parachute Creek, Colo. After a decade of trying, the project had swallowed tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, and Unocal lost $7 million.
  • In 1981, Chevron and Conoco Shale oil began work on their Clear Creek project, located on a private 25,000-acre site north of De Beque. Construction at the site was halted in 1984.
  • In the 1970s, four companies acquired a federal prototype C-b oil shale lease. The lease was suspended in 1987 and pumping on the production on the lease was stopped in 1991. No oil was ever produced from this lease.

Time has apparently healed oil company wounds for politicians to push this failed resource. There is a new push to drill for this unproven energy source. Spearheading this push is a handful of Congressional heels, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) and Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.). They recently teamed with Speaker John Boehner to push Lamborn’s PIONEERS Act through the House.

The giveaway is a continuation of a 100-year sink of tax dollars and public lands used to develop oil shale. All have failed. Yet today, industry lobbyists, and the politicians that take money from them are trying to throw more good taxpayer money after bad in an effort to distract from rising gas prices and increase government handouts to oil and gas companies.

Oil shale itself is a misnomer. It is actually rock containing an organic substance called kerogen. The rocks haven’t been in the ground for enough time or under enough pressure to become oil. Oil companies need to recreate geological forces to produce any energy from it. Ideas for developing oil shale have included baking acres of land at 700 degrees for three to four years and even detonating an atomic bomb underground.

The lack of an efficient way to create energy from this rock – which has the energy density of a potato – hasn’t stopped oil companies from using it as a reason to spend money to snatch up public land, or politicians from giving it to them.

If Lamborn, Tipton, and Coffman have their dithers, they would create a host of new giveaways to oil companies such as:

  • Over 2 million acres of public lands for oil shale speculation, even though the oil industry has said, on the record, that it will be at least until 2020 before they know whether commercial oil shale is even possible.
  • “Bargain basement” oil shale royalty rates of 5 percent (compared to a rate of 12.5 percent for onshore oil and gas and 18.75 percent for offshore oil) which would slash revenue to the federal treasury and for local governments, who need the funds to offset the associated costs of energy development such as new roads, utility lines, schools, and fire and police services.

Oil companies themselves have admitted that oil shale is an unready energy source. In fact, Shell Oil, which is recognized as a leader in oil shale research, says the earliest that commercial oil shale technology could be available is next decade, and possibly later: “A commercial decision would be in the middle of the next decade and possibly later depending on the sequence and outcome of research activities.”

Far more valuable to these companies than any potential profit they might receive from extracting a non-cost competitive energy source is the ability to increase their claims to Western lands. Oil companies already have permits to drill on 38.4 million acres of public BLM land, an area larger than the state of Georgia. Of that land, 57 percent remains unused. Congressmen Lamborn, Tipton and Coffman should tell their oil industry benefactors to use the land they have before pushing a bill that would give more of our public land to oil companies for a return that is the equivalent of small potatoes.

 

Filed under Blog Tagged with , , , , , ,

Coloradans welcome “Flat Earth Society” members of Congress

May 2, 2012 Leave a comment

Groups call for energy reality check, end of excessive taxpayer handouts to Big Oil

DENVER – Several Colorado groups took members of Congress to task today over their failed energy policies, political rhetoric, and ties to industry.

Clean Water Action, Colorado Fair Share Alliance, the Checks and Balances Project and local activists gathered on the steps of the state capitol early this morning in anticipation of a U.S. House Energy and Minerals Subcommittee field hearing on federal oversight of oil and gas fracking operations. Rep. Doug Lamborn chairs the committee, and Rep. Mike Coffman is also a member.

The groups greeted Lamborn and the hearing with a banner that said, “Welcome, Flat Earth Society” – a reference to a recent National Press Club speech by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar where he argued Republicans were out of touch on energy policy and the realities on the ground.

“The hearing is nothing but a Big Oil funded charade put on by Lamborn and Coffman, charter members of the Flat Earth Society,” said Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action.  “Coloradans need to grab their air, water, public lands, and democracy because Big Oil wants to buy them all.”

The groups also called the hearing a waste of taxpayer dollars, especially given the fact that the Interior Department’s new draft fracking rules were actually met with praise by some in industry this week.

“The ‘Flat Earth Society’ members of Congress have fallen flat on doing what’s right – providing relief on gas prices and promoting real energy independence,” said Matt Garrington, co-director of the Checks and Balances Project. “Coffman and Lamborn continue to put Big Oil profits first.”

The groups noted that the oil and gas industry receives $9.4 billion annually in special tax breaks, funds that would be better spent investing in long term solutions such high tech vehicles, the next generation of renewable fuels, and transportation improvements.

Joining the event was David Bouchey of Aurora, who criticized his Representative, Mike Coffman, for supporting Big Oil and moneyed interests over Coloradans.

“As a constituent, I’m not happy that Mike Coffman has supported letting my unemployment benefits expire while supporting tax breaks for the 1% oil companies,” said Bouchey.

One reason for why Republicans Coffman and Lamborn may be abusing their authority to run special interest legislation for Big Oil and hold messaging hearings could be the disparity in campaign contributions Republicans receive from industry.

According the Center for Responsive Politics, the oil and gas industry gave nearly 88% of their campaign contributions to Republicans. So far this cycle, Rep. Coffman has received $55,000 from the oil and gas industry, and Rep. Doug Lamborn has received $29,250.

“Today’s hearing is just another way Rep. Coffman and Lamborn are paying back their oil and gas campaign contributors,” said Wockner. “We should be ending taxpayer handouts to Big Oil and reinvesting in American energy solutions that will provide relief and real energy security.”

FACTS ABOUT COLORADO ENERGY DEVELOPMENT

  • Natural gas production was at an all-time high in 2010 at  1,589,664 MMcf (latest data available).
  • As of May 2012, of the 4.2 million acres leased for oil and gas drilling on federal lands in Colorado only 25% or 1.06 million acres are currently in production. That means the oil and gas industry has more than 3.1 million acres of land leased available right now for energy production.
  • Drilling in Colorado (federal, state, and private lands) was up 24% in 2011:
    • Average number of annual drill rigs under the Bush administration: 67
    • Average number of annual drill rigs under the Obama administration: 60

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 

Download a jpg of the banner (seen above) and a map (PDF) showing the amount of Colorado’s federal public lands where are leased for energy development but not yet developed.

Filed under Blog, Release

Coloradans forced to pay twice for gasoline

April 19, 2012 Leave a comment

In Colorado, Clean Water Action and Colorado Conservation Voters held events on Tax Day to hold Congressmen Mike Coffman and Scott Tipton accountable for the special tax breaks and subsidies they are handing out to Big Oil. While at local gas stations, citizens asked why they were being forced to “shoulder more than $157 million of the burden for oil and gas tax breaks” especially when gas prices are at an all time high.

Fat Cat takes photos with drivers calling an end to taxpayer handouts to Big Oil. Source: Clean Water Action

“It’s high time Coloradans stop paying twice for gas – once at the pump and again on Tax Day,” said Gary Wockner, director of Clean Water Action. “We should end the billions in taxpayer handouts to Big Oil fat cats, but Reps. Mike Coffman and Scott Tipton have voted a half dozen times to protect Big Oil tax breaks.”

According to Clean Water Action:

Coloradans are paying just over $3.85 a gallon for gas, $0.29 more per gallon than one year ago. While Colorado families struggle to adjust to higher energy prices, the top five oil and gas companies alone reported $137 billion in profits this past year.

Oil and gas interests have given more than $6.8 million in campaign contributions to members of Congress so far this election cycle, 88 percent of which went to Republican members.

Rep. Mike Coffman has taken $164,800 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, and Rep. Scott Tipton has taken $104,600.

“Big Oil is buying-off our members of Congress, including Reps. Coffman and Tipton, to keep protect billions in special tax breaks,” said Wockner. “No wonder the only solution to gas prices these politicians offer up are gimmicks like ‘drill, baby, drill.”

“Instead of taking money from Big Oil, the Congressmen should vote to end Big Oil tax breaks and reinvest those funds in long term solutions such as transportation improvements, the next generation of renewable fuels, and high tech vehicles,” concluded Wockner.

Filed under Blog Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

All of the above means we have to go beyond oil

March 22, 2012 Leave a comment

As gas prices top $4/gallon in an election year, Americans are fed up with empty promises and cheap gimmicks. Who in their right mind buys Newt Gingrich’s claim that he can lower gas prices to $2.50/gallon?

So, who or what is to blame for high gasoline prices?

The Big Oil spin machine and the Republicans who received 88% of Big Oil campaign contributions would have you believe it’s the President’s conservation policies which aim to balance responsible energy development and the protection of our Great Outdoors.

The truth is that energy development and conservation is not a zero sum game. Under the Obama Administration, domestic oil drilling hit a record high, American oil production hit an eight-year high, domestic demand is at its lowest point in 17 years, and America stands as a net exporter of petroleum products.

The simplistic view of “drill here, drill now” has no credibility as a means to bring down the price of a gallon of gas. In fact, the Associated Press just reported that increased oil drilling has never brought down gas prices.

When I studied Economics, one of the first things they taught was the Law of Supply and Demand and how it should affect price in a free market. This year, the price at the pump seemingly defies that law. Demand for oil and gas in America is down and production is up. But that hasn’t prevented prices from surging, and oil industry profits surging right along with them.

To be clear, supply and demand is one factor at play – but on a global level. The economic progress of China and India, as well as the swelling appetite for oil that comes with that growth, adds to an increase in oil prices. Clearly supply and demand are not the whole story though.

As one expert at Oppenheimer & Co recently noted, “Speculation is now part of the DNA of oil prices.”

That sentiment is echoed by some unlikely sources. ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson recently stated that oil speculation and uncertainty over Iran are driving up the current price at the pump. Citing Goldman Sachs, Forbes reported this past February that oil speculation was adding $0.56 to the price at the pump.

Something else that seems fishy is that while global demand is going up and gas prices surging, Big Oil’s refineries in the United States are cutting back.

So while Americans struggle to pay for the cost of these high energy prices, the oil and gas industry made nearly $137 billion in profits last year. Make no mistake. Oil companies don’t want lower gas prices because it means less profit.

So what is there to do?

President Obama is correct when he says there is no “quick fix” to gas prices. Congress needs to end taxpayer handouts to big oil and reinvest those funds in American energy innovation and clean energy solutions. We need to make our cars and trucks more fuel efficient, so American families can cut energy costs and travel farther on less oil. Congress and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission should crack down on Wall Street speculators to stop their gambling from artificially inflating the price at the pump.

We need an all of the above energy strategy that goes beyond oil. Unless we truly end our dependence on oil, foreign or domestic, we will continue to be vulnerable to global events and market manipulation by Big Oil and their friends on Wall Street.

Originally published on the National Journal Energy Expert Blog

Filed under Blog Tagged with , , ,

Sen. Pat Roberts’ oil shale amendment

March 13, 2012 Leave a comment

Subtitle G–Oil Shale and Tar Sands Leasing

   SEC. 50601. EFFECTIVENESS OF OIL SHALE REGULATIONS, AMENDMENTS TO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLANS, AND RECORD OF DECISION.

(a)    Regulations.–Notwithstanding any other law or regulation to the contrary, the final regulations regarding oil shale management published by the Bureau of Land Management on November 18, 2008 (73 Fed. Reg. 69,414) are deemed to satisfy all legal and procedural requirements under any law, including the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109 58), and the Secretary of the Interior shall implement those regulations, including the oil shale and tar sands leasing program authorized by the regulations, without any other administrative action necessary.

(b)    Amendments to Resource Management Plans and Record of Decision.–Notwithstanding any other law or regulation to the contrary, the November 17, 2008 U.S. Bureau of Land Management Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments/Record of Decision for Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources to Address Land Use Allocations in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement are deemed to satisfy all legal and procedural requirements under any law, including the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109 58), and the Secretary of the Interior shall implement the oil shale and tar sands leasing program authorized by the regulations referred to in subsection (a) in those areas covered by the resource management plans amended by such amendments, and covered by such record of decision, without any other administrative action necessary.

SEC. 50602. OIL SHALE AND TAR SANDS LEASING.

(a)    Additional Research and Development Lease Sales.–The Secretary of the Interior shall hold a lease sale within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act offering an additional 10 parcels for lease for research, development, and demonstration of oil shale or tar sands resources, under the terms offered in the solicitation of bids for such leases published on January 15, 2009 (74 Fed. Reg. 10).

(b) Commercial Lease Sales.–No later than January 1, 2016, the Secretary of the Interior shall hold no less than 5 separate commercial lease sales in areas considered to have the most potential for oil shale or tar sands development, as determined by the Secretary, in areas nominated through public comment. Each lease sale shall be for an area of not less than 25,000 acres, and in multiple lease blocs.

(c) Reduced Payments To Ensure Production.–The Secretary of the Interior may temporarily reduce royalties, fees, rentals, bonus, or other payments for leases of Federal lands for the development and production of oil shale resources as necessary to incentivize and encourage development of such resources, if the Secretary determines that the royalties, fees, rentals, bonus bids, and other payments otherwise authorized by law are hindering production of such resources.

Click to see the full amendment at Thomas.gov

Filed under Blog

Roberts amendment hangs oil company boondoggle on Senate transportation bill

March 13, 2012 Leave a comment

NEWS STATEMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

March 13, 2012

CONTACT: Matt Garrington, (720) 206-4348

Roberts amendment tries to hang oil shale boondoggle on Senate transportation bill


The following is a quote from Denver-based Checks and Balances Project Co-Director Matt Garrington about S.AMDT.1826, Sen. Pat Roberts’ (R-KS) oil shale amendment to the Senate transportation bill.

“After taking $429,800 from Big Oil, Sen. Roberts has wrapped every giveaway he can think of into one amendment – including a 2 million acre handout for oil shale speculation.

“Sen. Roberts clearly isn’t serious about fixing our nation’s crumbling roads and bridges, or he wouldn’t be trying to solve our transportation and energy needs with an oil shale industry that does not exist.”

Five facts you need to know about S.Amdt.1826 and oil shale:

  • Sen. Roberts’ amendment would hand 2 million acres of public lands over to oil companies and mandates commercial leasing on 125,000 acres despite the fact that no commercial oil shale industry exists.
  • The amendment also creates a new oil shale subsidy by setting a bargain basement royalty rate of 5 percent (compared to 12.5 percent for onshore oil and gas and 18.75 percent for offshore oil), reducing revenue from the federal treasury to local governments which is intended to offset the associated infrastructure costs of energy development.
  • The House passed a similar oil shale bill sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn in February, as part of Speaker Boehner’s much-maligned transportation package. The Congressional Budget Office scored the oil shale bill as having “no effect on revenue,” and days after Rep. Lamborn’s bill passed, Chevron announced it was divesting its oil shale research in Colorado.
  • There is no actual oil in oil shale. It’s a rock found in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado that contains kerogen, a precursor to oil that has not been in the ground long enough under enough heat or pressure to turn into oil. A century of failed attempts to make it a viable energy source have included ideas like detonating nuclear bombs to cook it at 600 to 700 degrees and lowering massive heaters into the ground for 3 to 4 years at a time.
  • The Roberts amendment includes other giveaways on the oil industry’s wish list including drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, expanding offshore drilling, and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

30 – 30 – 30

Filed under Blog Tagged with , , , , , ,

The Denver Post: “While gas booms, shale is on its own separate track”

March 5, 2012 Leave a comment

Following Chevron’s decision to pull out of oil shale development, The Denver Post looks at what oil shale means for Western Colorado. The paper supports continued research with the understanding that oil shale has yet to produce. What is doesn’t support is Lamborn’s new bill:

We hope another company picks up Chevron’s lease and that Royal Dutch Shell and AMSO continue their efforts to make oil shale viable in both a commercial environmental sense.

Until that day, oil shale remains a long-shot option to meeting the nation’s energy needs.

That’s one reason we were unimpressed with U.S. House action last month aimed at increasing production of oil shale by authorizing up to 2 million acres of Western lands for exploration.

The bill, authored by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, does include provisions we support, such as pushing for increased offshore drilling. But the focus on oil shale is misleading and, it so happens, unpopular with a number of leaders on the Western Slope who fear the effects of serious shale development on their communities.

The paper is surprised that Lamborn put so much attention on oil shale when there is clearly action happening elsewhere: oil and gas production is on the rise and “domestic oil output is the highest in eight years.”

Colorado is of course part of this larger story of the renaissance in oil and gas production. But as Colorado Department of Natural Resources director Mike King said recently, oil shale is on a separate track. “We need to be thorough and have a full understanding of potential impacts to the environment and our communities before we take steps toward large-scale leasing or development of oil shale,” he rightly insisted.

Read the complete article here.

Filed under Blog

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 33 other followers