Yesterday members of Western Colorado Congress of Mesa County delivered a message to Scott Tipton’s office in the form of a check stamped “insufficient Funds.” For some reason people think that oil shale is simply a bunch of oil waiting around waiting to be pumped into our gas tanks. Republicans, looking for a way to pay for a highway and bridge repair bill, and to put American workers back to work, proposed to mandate commercial leasing of oil shale in Colorado in order to pay for the repairs and workers.

The only problem is that despite billions of dollars of federal subsidies already going into experimental leases in Colorado, nobody has discovered a commercially feasible way to turn a really heavy rock into a liquid that is usable in automobiles.  The recipe that actually produces oil from oil shale requires heating the rock to 700 degrees for four years. It can be mined and then heated, or heated in place. Industry has proven that it can be done. It can’t be done in an economically feasible way. And for sure it isn’t going to pay for any jobs bill that puts Americans to work in this century.

Randy Udall said it best at a recent Grand Junction forum on oil shale—oil shale is the energy of the future, and will always be the energy of the future.  It isn’t ready to use today, and it won’t be ready in 10 years, and it won’t be ready in 100 years. We need to stop thinking of Colorado as having oil reserves larger than Saudi Arabia. We do, but they will never be produced in our lifetimes. Instead of putting our future into a rock that happens to burn, we should be looking to support alternative energy solutions. Solutions that might be ready in THIS century.

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