Oil Shale Not?

The idea of oil shale in western Colorado sounds appealing and all. The way industry is talking they can extract it without creating open pit mines and plus we need all that petroleum anyway, right?

But wait a minute. It seems that to fuel any oil shale development, industry will need monstrous amounts of power, like three times the amount of electricity used by the state of Colorado in 2005. And where is this power going to come from? Well, if the past is any indication in western Colorado, it's likely going to come from more coal burning.

The list of harmful crap spewed from coal burning includes mercury, dioxins, sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, nitrogen oxides, and lead. Just look at all the toxic pollutants released from Xcel's coal burning Cherokee Power Plant in Denver.

The way oil shale is shaping up it's looking like we're going to be squeezing blood from a turnip here. Talk about a waste of resources, energy, and human life.

In the words of one doctor, "The new power plants needed for oil shale production would exact public health consequences that would seriously undermine any benefit from oil- shale projects.”