Word: shales
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...lack of understanding can be seen in the decision to pump billions of dollars into the development of synthetic fuels. As Colorado's Democratic Governor Dick Lamm put it: "For us in the West the implications are almost unfathomable. Colorado has 80% of the nation's developable shale, vast amounts of coal and a great deal of uranium. Now we are being subjected to a crash program...
...industry to produce synthetic fuels would be the most ambitious technical venture that the U.S. has ever undertaken. From outright subsidies to price guarantees, the Government would offer many incentives for private firms to produce oil-like liquids and natural gas from the nation's plentiful coal, shale rock and biomass.* Congressmen are infatuated with the idea of synthetic-fuel production. Cracks Representative Clarence Brown of Ohio: "Every committee in Congress has a synfuel bill, except the Ethics Committee...
Though the U.S. has some oil-saturated tar sands, they are not large or accessible enough to justify expensive exploitation by the Government. But some 76 billion bbl. in oil, about three times the nation's proven reserves of conventional crude, are known to be recoverable from the shale rock concentrated in western Colorado and stretching into Utah and Wyoming. No plants are in operation at present, but at least five companies are running experimental digs in the area. To produce a barrel of oil, about 1½ tons of rock must be mined and heated...
Because of inflation and increasing costs of environmental controls, price predictions for building synfuel plants have been rising steadily. The new range is from $1 billion to $3 billion for an oil shale or coal liquefaction plant that would produce 50,000 to 100,000 bbl. a day. A coal gasification plant would run some $1.5 billion. Ever climbing costs have kept estimated prices of producing synfuels persistently dancing ahead of world crude prices. In 1973, when oil was $3.50 a bbl., oil from shale was figured at $4.50. Just before OPEC'S latest price rise, when crude...
...major problem is not financial but environmental. Extracting oil from shale is thought to be the greatest pollution threat. Thus, the toughest environmental battles will probably rage in Colorado and other shale-rich Western states, which have generally strict pollution-control laws. There will also be local resistance to coal gasification and liquefaction plants because they pollute the air with fumes from burning and lead to a noisy, dust-spewing increase in rail traffic to bring in the coal. On the other side, labor unions and various local groups will be eager to attract synfuel plants-particularly in Appalachia-because...