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发帖数: 29846 | 1 GAO: Recoverable Oil in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming 'About Equal to Entire World
’s Proven Oil Reserves'
By Terence P. Jeffrey
May 11, 2012
(CNSNews.com) - The Green River Formation, a largely vacant area of mostly
federal land that covers the territory where Colorado, Utah and Wyoming come
together, contains about as much recoverable oil as all the rest the world
’s proven reserves combined, an auditor from the Government Accountability
Office told Congress on Thursday.
The GAO testimony said that the federal government was in “a unique
position to influence the development of oil shale” because the Green River
deposits were mostly beneath federal land.
It also noted that developing the oil would have an environmental impact and
pose “socioeconomic challenges,” that included bringing “a sizable
influx of workers who along with their families put additional stress on
local infrastructure” and “making planning for growth difficult for local
governments.”
“The Green River Formation--an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary
rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming--contains the
world's largest deposits of oil shale,”Anu K. Mittal, the GAO’s director
of natural resources and environment said in written testimony submitted to
the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and Environment.
“USGS estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion
barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on
available technology and economic conditions,” Mittal testified.
“The Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, estimates that 30
to 60 percent of the oil shale in the Green River Formation can be
recovered,” Mittal told the subcommittee. “At the midpoint of this
estimate, almost half of the 3 trillion barrels of oil would be recoverable.
This is an amount about equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves.”
In her oral statement before the subcommittee, Mittal said that developing
the shale oil would create wealth and jobs for the country, but also
challenges for government.
“Being able to tap this vast amount of oil locked within this formation
will go a long way to help to meet our future demands for oil. The U.S.
Geological Survey, as you noted, estimates that the formation contains about
3 trillion barrels of oil of which half may be recoverable,” she said.
“As you can imagine having the technology to develop this vast energy
resource will lead to a number of important socioeconomic benefits including
the creation of jobs, increases in wealth and increases in tax and royalty
payments for federal and state governments,” she said.
“While large-scale oil-shale development offers socioeconomic opportunities
it also poses certain socioeconomic challenges that also should not be
overlooked,” she testified. “Oil shale development like other extractive
industries can bring a sizable influx of workers who along with their
families put additional stressed on local infrastructure. Development from
expansion of extractive industries has historically followed a boom-and-bust
cycle making planning for growth difficult for local governments.”
In her written testimony, Mittal noted that three-fourths of the Green River
shale oil is under federal land.
“The federal government is in a unique position to influence the
development of oil shale because nearly three-quarters of the oil shale
within the Green River Formation lies beneath federal lands managed by the
Department of the Interior’s (Interior) Bureau of Land Management (BLM),”
she testified.
The GAO also cited potential environmental impacts from producing oil from
the Green River shale that included the need to draw large amounts of water,
possible harm to water quality, and temporary degradation of air quality
and the clearing of large amounts of vegetation.
"Developing oil shale and providing power for oil shale operations and other
activities will require large amounts of water and could have significant
impacts on the quality and quantity of surface and groundwater resources,"
Mittal said in her written testimony. "In addition, construction and mining
activities during development can temporarily degrade air quality in local
areas. There can also be long-term regional increases in air pollutants from
oil shale processing and the generation of additional electricity to power
oil shale development operations. Oil shale operations will also require the
clearing of large surface areas of topsoil and vegetation which can affect
wildlife habitat, and the withdrawal of large quantities of surface water
which could also negatively impact aquatic life." | P*********0
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