West seeing new energy boom

PARACHUTE, Colo. — John Loschke climbs out of his truck in the cramped parking lot outside the Outlaws restaurant and surveys the collection of cars, trucks and RVs.

It's lunch hour on a hot summer day and he figures about 70 percent of the vehicles bear the unmistakable signs of oil and gas country. It reminds Loschke, the town's mayor, of the chaotic scene when Parachute's fortunes were changed during an oil shale boom some 30 years ago.

Today's energy boom, he says, is "managed chaos."

"We're better prepared. It's 25 years later, and we've got infrastructure," he said.

Some two decades after the West's last oil bust, production of coal, natural gas, oil and uranium is on the upswing as the world's energy supplies dwindle and demand rises unabated. Even oil shale is getting a fresh look.

Operations are scattered across the sparsely populated land, prompting concern about potential impacts on land, water, air and even the communities, says Pete Kolbenschlag of the Colorado Environmental Coalition.

"Communities in the West are not being given the opportunity to really see what this package of possibilities means," he said.

Audra Moore, who owns a video game rental shop in Battlement Mesa, is worried about the landscape, noting the oil wells seem to be sunk every few acres in the Grand Valley area.

"I'm concerned about the looks and how it will affect the wildlife," she said.

Natural resources have helped sustain the West's economy since it was settled — gold, silver, copper, coal, natural gas, oil. It's proven to be a roller-coaster ride with thousands of jobs created during prosperous times and then lost as demand ebbed.

A recent example occurred when Middle East producers shut off oil supplies to the United States in 1973 over U.S. support of Israel. The move sent companies scrambling to develop domestic supplies as gas was rationed and prices skyrocketed.

Thousands of workers filled housing complexes; city and state coffers were bolstered with revenue, and the government began bolstering infrastructure. Then the price free-fall began, sending the West spiraling into economic doldrums as tens of thousands of jobs were lost, bankruptcies jumped and businesses were shuttered.