It is good to see support from the National Mining Association for Obama’s pick to head the Interior Department, namely Senator Ken Salazar. I quote:
Oil and mining interests praised Mr. Salazar’s record as a state official and as a senator, saying that he was not doctrinaire about the use of public lands for resource exploitation. “Nothing in his record suggests he’s an ideologue,” said Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association. “Here’s a man who understands the issues, is open-minded and can see at least two sides of an issue.”
Mr. Popovich noted approvingly that Mr. Salazar had tried to engineer a deal in the Senate under which mining companies and others could reclaim abandoned mines without fear of lawsuits. (The legislation is pending.) He also backed a compromise under which oil companies could drill for natural gas in limited parts of the Roan Plateau in northwestern Colorado, a plan that most environmental advocates opposed.
The report notes that Salazar is a “skeptic on oil shale.” We need not worry about that. For wiht oil prices fallen so far, and possibly further, there is no immediate need for the oil shales. There probably won’t be any need for them any time in the future either I suspect.
Environmentalists were less happy about his pick:
Salazar has a disturbingly weak conservation record, particularly on energy development, global warming, endangered wildlife and protecting scientific integrity,” said Mr. Patterson, who was elected last month to the Arizona House of Representatives from Tucson and supported Mr. Grijalva for the Interior Department job. “It’s no surprise oil and gas, mining, agribusiness and other polluting industries that have dominated Interior are supporting rancher Salazar — he’s their friend.”
In these days of turninnig fortunes, we will just have to wish him balance in his new job.
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Oil shale!!
I was with Shell in the mid eighties in Holland doing a feasibility on an oil shale deposit they had in southern Morocco. When we finished, the capital cost was, in 1986 dollars, hold your breath, $13 billion for a mine and plant to process 160,000 tons per day and produce synthetic crude at a cost of, again, in 1986 dollars, sit down, $40 a barrel. Needless to say, the project died as the 1986 average price for light, sweet crude out of the ground was about $21 a barrel.
The major oil producers got excited about oil shales after the price peaked in 1980 at $68. The price collapsed in late 1985 just like it is doing now. Only got back to $40 in 2004. Some of the companies (like Exxon) shut down the projects in mid construction and walked away from several billion bucks in sunk capital.
Here it is 20 + years later and I would estimate that the capital and production cost now would be at least double what we worked out in 1986. Even with more oil in reserve in shales in the Tri State area of Wyoming, Colorado and Utah than there is in all of the Middle East, you wont be filling your tank with gasoline from shale sourced synthetic crude anytime soon.
Bruce Ferguson
Reno, NV
Senator Salazar is a good pick for Interior Secretary. Rep. Grijalva has proven himself to be anything but even-handed in his approach to mining projects.