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<br />8 <br /> <br />reversed its role as a net exporter of energy and now imports 15 percent <br />of its total energy and 37 percent of its petroleum.* <br /> <br />In an effort to deal with this situation, the objective of "energy self- <br />sufficiency" has been the subject of numerous national studies. Even par- <br />tial realization of this objective will accelerate energy development ac- <br />tivities in the Rocky Mountain Region and especially in Colorado. The <br />state is particularly rich in coal and oil shale resources. There are <br />230 billion tons of coal in place which is 10 percent of the nation's <br />total. The Piceance Creek Basin in northwestern Colorado contains 600 <br />billion barrels of higher grade oil shale with in-place oil resources <br />equal to 1.25 trillion barrels of oil equivalent. This is equal to a. <br />100 year supply of oil for the nation, at present rates of consumption. <br />Other significant resources are oil, gas and uranium. In 1974, Colorado <br />ranked 11th in the U.S. in oil production and fourth in production of U308 <br />"yellowcake" (uranium). ** <br /> <br />The Boom Town Phenomenon <br />The development of energy resources to meet national needs can have some <br />positive effects on a local economy--increased employment, in-migration of <br />skilled labor, and expansion of the local economic base. These benefits <br />are long range and regional. However, there are also some inimical effects-- <br />the greatest of which is generally referred to as the boom town phenomenon. <br />These negative impacts tend to be immediate and local. <br /> <br />The boom town phenomenon is usually caused by a rapid increase in popula- <br />tion in an area where both public and private facilities and services are <br />not adequate to accommodate such an increase. The timing and the geo- <br />graphic distribution of tax revenues lead to severe front-end financing <br /> <br />*Federa1 Energy Administration, 1976 Executive Summany, National Energy <br />Outlook, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1976, p. 3. <br /> <br />**Compi1ed by D. Keith Murray, Mineral Fuels Section, Colorado Geological <br />Survey, Energy Resources of Colorado: Facts and Figures, July 31, 1975, <br />pp. 1 and 5. <br />