Report: Abandon Utah's oil shale, tar sands

As Gov. Gary Herbert prepares today to stage the first of four statewide forums on Utah’s energy future, a Rocky Mountain environmental group has some advice: Forget oil shale and tar sands. Western Resource Advocates issued a 38-page report Tuesday on the energy and water inefficiency of either potential fuel source. The title: Fossil Foolishness: Utah’s Pursuit of Tar Sands and Oil Shale. The Boulder, Colo.-based legal and policy group commissioned a Boston University geographer to analyze the energy return on investment for oil shale. He determined that most research indicates that, at best, making fuel from the rock would generate twice the energy content of what it takes to produce. That compares to a 20-to-1 ratio or better for petroleum.

Additionally, the advocates insist, these potential fuel sources are too polluting and water intensive to win a place in Herbert’s vision for a clean-energy economy. They argue they also would require too many public subsidies to meet his test for market solutions. The Western Resource Advocates report cites state and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation estimates that Utah will exhaust its remaining share of Colorado River water by about 2020 — even without giving over any of it to new energy development. Utah’s potential for developing 634,000 barrels of oil a day by mining and then cooking oil shale would require somewhere between 90,000 and 150,000 acre-feet of water. An acre-foot, roughly 326,000 gallons, is about enough to supply two households for a year. While not armed with as much research about Utah’s tar sands, the environmental group believes that potential energy source faces similar efficiency issues. Salt Lake Tribune

SUWA, energy company reach historic deal on drilling near Nine Mile

In a unprecedented pact, a major energy company and its longtime environmental nemesis have agreed on a plan to drill for natural gas on eastern Utah’s West Tavaputs Plateau near relic-rich Nine Mile Canyon — and they did so without a lawsuit. The compromise by Bill Barrett Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance will significantly reduce the project’s environmental impact while still allowing drillers to capture much of the natural-gas resources they sought.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management signed off on the deal in its final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the West Tavaputs Natural Gas Full Field Development Plan. Under the final EIS, Barrett and other operators plan to drill 626 wells from 120 pads, shaving the initial proposal by 181 wells and 418 pads. It also reduces surface impacts from 3,656 acres to 1,603 acres, according to the BLM.

SUWA attorney and energy-program director Stephen Bloch said the agreement marks a “hard-fought compromise” negotiated over many months that will protect federal Wilderness Study Areas as well as additional lands with wilderness qualities near picturesque Desolation Canyon. The unusual negotiations between Barrett and SUWA, which headed up a coalition of conservation organizations in the talks, were separate from January’s “programmatic” agreement between the BLM and Barrett.The January accord was reached in cooperation with Carbon, Duchesne and Uintah counties, as well as cultural-preservation advocates, environmental organizations and others to protect the rugged and scenic areas from Nine Mile Canyon to Desolation Canyon along the Green River.

The final EIS is subject to a 30-day appeal to the Interior Department’s Board of Land Appeals. The atmosphere for compromise did not exist before the November 2008 election of President Barack Obama, according to Bloch and others. The Salt Lake Tribune