Oil embedded in Colorado and other western states could help kick the nation of its dependency on foreign sources, if only the industry knew how to harvest it. Two Colorado congressmen say the Obama administration is standing in the way.
During a field hearing in Grand Junction on Wednesday, Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) accused the Obama administration of discouraging shale oil harvesting.
“Instead of promoting American jobs and developing cutting edge clean technologies to utilize these resources and lead the way in global development of this resource, the Obama administration has stonewalled its production,” says Lamborn.
Congressman Scott Tipton (R-CO) seconded Lamborn’s criticism at the hearing. Industry representatives said harvesting oil from the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming would create jobs and deliver enough oil to power the country for up to 200 years.
If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.
“These companies have been given hundreds of thousands of acres of land, they’ve been given subsidy after subsidy, and they still can’t do it,” says David Abelson, oil shale policy adviser with Western Resource Advocates in Boulder.
Both sides of the oil shale debate say more research is necessary.
Patrick Terpstra – Capitol News Connection.