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• Board Meeting Date: 7/11/2007
• Description: WSP Section - Intrastate Water Planning - Oil Shale Water Use
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

xii Oil 'Shale Development in the United States: Prospects and Policy Issues

National Security. A drop in world oil prices would reduce revenue to oil-
exporting countries. A 3 to 5 percent reduction in revenue would not change the
poli1:ical dynamic in those countries a great deal. With regard to enhancing national
security, the principal value of oil shale production would be its contribution to a
portfolio of measures intended to increase oil supplies and reduce oil demand.
Other claims of the benefits of increased domestic oil production, such as a
reduced trade deficits and more reliable fuel supplies for national defense purposes,
are not well justified.

Critical Policy Issues for Oil Shale Development

The potential emergence of an oil shale industry in the western United States raises a
number of critical policy issues.
Land Use and Ecological Impacts. Of all the environmental impacts of oil shale
development, the most serious appears to be the extent to which land will be dis-
turbed. Regardless of the technical approach to oil shale development, a portion of
the land over the Green River Formation will need to be withdrawn from current
uses, and there could be permanent topographic changes and impacts on flora and
fauna. For surface retorting, extensive and permanent changes to surface topography
will result from mining and spent shale disposal. In-situ retorting appears to be much
less disruptive, but surface-based drilling and support operations will cause at least a
decade-long displacement of all other land uses and of preexisting flora and fauna at
each development site.
Air Quality. Oil shale operations will result in emissions that could impact
regional air quality. Studies in the 1970s and 1980s suggested that air emissions from
an industry producing a few hundred thousand barrels per day could probably be
controlled to meet then existing regulations. No studies have been reported since,
and no studies have considered output on the order of several million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, so much has changed in terms of environmental regulations, mining and
process technologies, and pollution control technologies that the earlier analyses are
no longer relevant.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions. The production of petroleum products derived
from oil shale will entail significantly higher emissions of carbon dioxide, compared
with conventional crude oil production. If these emissions are to be controlled, oil
shale production costs will increase.
Water Quality. All high-grade western oil shale resources lie in the Colorado
River drainage basin. For mining and surface retorting, the major water quality issue
is the leaching of salts and toxics from spent shale. A number of approaches are avail-
able for preventing surface water contamination from waste piles, but it is not clear
whether these methods represent a permanent solution that will be effective after the