Shale oil a slippery slope

On May 2, 1982, Exxon Corp., pulled the plug on what was then believed to be the most ambitious energy project in Colorado — shale oil development. Coloradans refer to the day as "Black Sunday," when then-Gov. Richard Lamm got a telephone call from the president of Exxon that the company was shuttering its shale oil project on the state's West Slope. "It came as a shot out of the blue because they were spending millions of dollars over there literally the week before," Lamm told the Rocky Mountain News in 1999. Some 2,200 people were laid off and other companies including UNOCAL and The Oil Shale Company (TOSCO) left the state shortly thereafter.

Although the event signaled that Colorado's energy economy was in trouble, Lamm said he was relieved that the scenic West Slope vistas remained undisturbed. At the time, the technology required strip mining the shale and extracting oil through a costly refining process. The environmental destruction was said to be the equivalent of excavating a Panama Canal every month.

More than 20 years have passed since the shale oil debacle on Colorado's West Slope, but the experience provides many lessons that are worth revisiting, given record oil prices and America's dependence on foreign oil. Some experts say the technology to extract oil has vastly improved. Others say the shale oil deposits in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado contain more recoverable oil than in the Middle East.

With crude oil prices exceeding $50 a barrel and gasoline prices at an average of $2.27 a gallon, it is in the United States' best interest to explore alternatives. However, extensive economic studies must be undertaken to ensure that there is not another repeat of the "Black Sunday" fiasco. If energy developers want to extract shale oil, the federal, state and local governments should not be expected to subsidize the operations. Colorado's saving grace was requiring the oil companies to pay for needed infrastructure improvements. Even then, it took many years for Colorado to recover from the shale oil bust, which was followed by a deep recession.

As some members of Congress and private industry eye the Green River Formation as a solution to foreign oil dependence, they should revisit the history books. Shale oil is an option, but most agree it remains a very expensive option. The risks to the environment deserve careful consideration.

Although economic pressures suggest urgency to explore energy alternatives, the possibility of shale oil development demands slow and deliberate investigation of the opportunities, impacts and risks.