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<br />\amm tells U.S. House unifconditions for oil shale development <br /> <br />B~'STf..""EL.\."IiG <br />~....!oI.atf <br />In his most comprehensive statt'lfH"nl. on oil shale de\"elop- <br />ment to date, Gov. Did Lamm Monday told a U.S. House of <br />Represent.ath'es subconumttt't' that residffilS of mining areas <br />shouldn't haw to pay tM burdens of de....elopmPflL <br />Lamm testified at a Boulder hearing of the fossil fuels sub- <br />committee of the IIouse Science and Technology Committee. <br />The hearing was chaired b~.' Rep. Tim Wirth. D-Colo. <br />Lamrn, reading from a statement, said three conditions <br />must be met bl-fore oil shale deu.'lopment can proceed in <br />Colorado : <br />-The federal go\'ernJnent must full)' assess the costs of <br />1evelopmem to IoC'aI municipalities and show '1hat mech- <br />anisms and funds exi:.1 to fully ameliorate theose rosts." Fur- <br />lhermore, the state must ('(Incur in the federal program. <br />-Shale projects should be built in the "smallest possible <br />size that is required to demonstrate COfJlITlf'rcial feasibility." <br />Lamm recornrnendl'd that prototype plants be built in modules, <br />gradually adding more of them as they pron~ feasible. <br />-Full-scale production of oil from shale shouldn't go for. <br />ward until Colorado has identified and appn>\"ed "majOr and <br />siWrificant reallocations of lilt> state's ~aler resourct'S." <br />The go....ernor said the state has enough ....ater to 1l1t"et the <br />needs of a demonstration shale program but that a full-scale <br />industry would cause disruptions. <br />It might be necessary for Colorado Ri\'er Basin states to <br />n.>negotiate "''liter agreemt'1lts Lf Colorado "IS expt'ded lo meet <br />this national energy need. ,. Lamm saId <br />The governor, flanked by en\'ironmental ajde Jim Mona. <br /> <br />." <br /> <br />ghan and lIarris Sherman. director of the Department of <br />Natural Rf"SOI.U'CPS, testifit'd for more than an hour on a ProlXlS- <br />al before Corlgres:s that would guarantt't' $6 billion in loans to <br />de....elopers of synthetic flWls - oil shale and liquefied and gasi- <br />fled coal. <br />The program is intended to help industry foot the huge cost <br />of building the plants. which Irs hoped will produce the equiva. <br />lent of one million barrels a day of oil. <br />Wirth t'Stlmated about S2 billion of the gQvernment -backed <br />loans would go for OLI shale dE-\'elopment <br /> <br />Michael ~Iark(')' of Friends of the Earth told the subcommit- <br />tee that thE> loan program 15 unwarrantro because synthetic <br />fuels are not rt>&dy for commercial production. <br />"We trust that the House will dismiss, on logical and <br /> <br />reasonable grounds. loan guarantees as totally unjustifIed - <br />unjustified on foreign policy, efl\'irorunenlal, social, energy and <br />erooomic grounds," Markey said. <br />He said there ha\'e been predictions that it would take 43 <br />times more energy to produce shale than would be yielded and <br /><Jthe.r estimatt.'S that 10 times more energy ....:ou1d be produced <br />than used 111 the process. <br />Until there are more concrete figures a..ailable, other ener- <br />gy sources are more promising, Markey said. <br />Carolyn Johnson, representing the Colorado Open Space <br />Council. predicted the co!>ts of the subsidy program might be 10 <br />times gr(>ater lhan the value or the el1('rgy produred. <br />She said that di'spite more favora?1e conditions - like mini- <br /> <br />tContiollt'd MI pagl" 14) <br /> <br />14-Rod:.y.M.ounfOinNews T~"Oct,28,1975,Denver,CoIo, <br /> <br />Lamm lists conditions for shale development <br /> <br />Unless the u.s. can create better conditions than those <br />found in Russia - and that can't be done - an oil shale program <br />in this country won't Sl.K'Cl"ed, she said, <br />~lany of those testifying predicted that once shale oil plants <br />begin operation, the federal government would have to step in <br />and support the price of the product, <br />Kathy Fletcher of the Environmental Defenst' Fund, calling <br />,the proposed loan program a "quagmire," said a Ford adminis- <br />tration proposal for $I) million in price supports is likely to be <br />"""'" <br />"\\-'hen the synl.hetic fud dewloper gwes you the ('hoice of <br />foreclosing on a blIlioo-dollar pieci> of hardware or providing <br />enough 'in<'ffitiv~' for the compan)' to agrt'(" to operate it." C0n- <br />gress probably would go for a subsidy program. she said. <br />J. Blaine Miller, exeruth'e \ire prestdt'nl of the Rio Blanro <br />Oil Shale Project, urgt"d the subcommittee to provide a "broad <br />~ variety of ifX'E'ntives" for dew!lopment of synthetic hwls, <br />The subcommittee will ad\ise conferff'S from the HOlL'le <br />.....hat a joint liouse--Senate conferef'lCE' rommittet' should do \\lth <br />the S6 billion loan program. <br />The hearings originally .....'('rt" scheduled to contlJ'llM' Tues- <br />day, but since Coogre<;s is reconwning, Wirth merged both days <br />of testimony into one, <br /> <br />tl'ontioUf'd from pagt' 51 <br />mal en\'ironmental and health OOIlC'E'ms, shallow deposits of <br />shale, richer shale dE-pusits and the lack of a need to pf1X't>SS IN> <br />raw shale -thl- Russian oil shale program i... oniy "marginally <br />profItable." <br /> <br />0054 <br />