WSP03239

• File Number: 8040.100
• Description: Section D General Studies - Power
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 10/8/1979
• Author: Colorado DNR
• Title: Preliminary Projections of Colorado Energy Resource Development and Associated Impacts
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Somewhere between these two extremes of high and low production will fall the

actual level of production in Colorado each year between now and 1990. Once

the implications of these high and low levels of production are analyzed, it

becomes more feasible to address the question of a middle level or preferred

level of production which might be a desired goal for energy production within

Colorado.

The establishment of high, medium and low scenarios of energy production

in Colorado through the year 1990, provides a common base so that the many state

agencies involved in analyzing the impacts of future energy production can all

respond to the same basic levels of future energy production. This standard-

ization of scenarios provides a means of identifying more fully the impacts in

Colorado of total energy development when they are superimposed upon other

non-energy sources of economic development.

The high, medium and low scenarios of future energy production in Colorado

have been developed with the best professional advice and review which could be

obtained in the time available. They have been based upon past production trends,

assumptions concerning future national needs and the accepted ability of the

energy sector to achieve production targets in non-traditional, exotic fuel

types.

(See Appendix E for the methodology used in developing these projections.)

The high scenario is based on the assumption that for each of the four energy

types separately (coal; uranium; oil shale and oil and gas) there would be

a very high level of production for that energy type. There was no attempt

to engage in trade-offs between energy types, meaning that if one energy type

was at a very high level of production another energy type would be at a more

moderate level. The high scenario, then, represents high production levels

separately for oil shale, coal, uranium and oil and gas. The low scenario

similarly represents an aggregation of individual low production targets for

these four separate energy types. The medium scenario represents a moderate

level of development for each energy type.

The proper interpretation of the use of scenarios here is to bracket the