Our weekly update to unravel the industry and political spin around the energy debate
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
OIL SHALE PROFESSOR SAYS LAMBORN’S BILL TOO MUCH, TOO SOON
Phil Taylor wrote a preview piece about oil shale for E&E News, ahead of Friday’s hearing on Rep. Lamborn’s Black Sunday Bill. In the piece, Phil quotes Professor Jeremy Boak, head of the Colorado School of Mines’ Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research – which is supported by the oil and gas industry – as saying: “It may be too soon to offer new leases before current research projects bear fruit.” And “It isn’t obvious to me yet that we need to be putting a bunch of commercial leases out there because no one has a commercial process yet. And [industry] admits that… I don’t see anybody eager to go out and lease land now when they’re still running experiments.”
E&E News is behind a paywall, so we can’t link to it, but if you have access it’s a great read.
HASTINGS MARCHES TO HIS OWN DRUMBEAT
The Public Lands Team at Think Progress posted an analysis of just how many times Doc Hastings and House Natural Resources Committee meeting have met to talk about drilling in and around the U.S. It turns out last week saw the committee’s 20th meeting on this topic.
Anyone want to hazard a guess on how many times during these 20 meetings in 11 months Hastings has acknowledged that U.S. drilling activity is higher now than at any time since Reagan was in office? Or that Big Oil has reported a whopping $100 billion in profits so far in 2011?
AFP: DISMANTLE THE EPA
DeSmogBlog reports that Charles and David Koch, the conservative ideologues who helped start AFP, “are the ones pulling the strings of the American elected officials who keep clamoring for an end to all environmental protections[.]”
DID YOU KNOW?
BLACK SUNDAY – TALK ABOUT A BAD ENERGY LOAN GUARANTEE
In 1981, the Reagan administration approved a $1.2 billion loan guarantee for Exxon’s Colony Oil Shale Project in western Colorado. One year later, on May 1, 1982 – Black Sunday – Exxon pulled the plug on the project. Overnight, more than 2,100 people lost their job and $85 million in local revenues dried up. Tens of thousands of people would later leave the region, devastating local economies.
Rep. Doug Lamborn’s “Black Sunday” Bill would fuel oil shale speculation on over 2 million acres of public lands, leaving more communities vulnerable to this sort of boom and bust impact.
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