Bashing McCain instead of talking about oil shale? Waste of time.

Try focusing on the issue and not fetishizing ANWR.

google “the politics of oil shale” to see a slam dunk presentation by Senators Allard and Hatch about democrat obstruction of development of CO oil shale

I tried to post the link but the comment was blocked.

funky chicken on June 11, 2008 at 10:38 AM

NEW YORK (Fortune) — You’d think this would be oil shale’s moment.

You’d think with gas prices topping $4 and consumers crying uncle, Congress would be moving fast to spur development of a domestic oil resource so vast – 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone – it could eventually rival the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

You’d think politicians would be tripping over themselves to arrange photo-ops with Harold Vinegar (whom I profiled in Fortune last November), the brilliant, Brooklyn-born chief scientist at Royal Dutch Shell whose research cracked the code on how to efficiently and cleanly convert oil shale – a rock-like fossil fuel known to geologists as kerogen – into light crude oil.

You’d think all of this, but you’d be wrong.

Last month, the U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee voted 15-14 to kill a bill that would have ended a one-year moratorium on enacting rules for oil shale development on federal lands (which is where the best oil shale is located). Most maddening of all – at least to someone like myself not steeped in the wacky ways of Washington – the swing vote on the appropriations committee, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., voted with the majority even though she actually opposes the moratorium.

“Sen. Salazar asked me to vote no. I did so at his request,” Landrieu told The Rocky Mountain News. A Landrieu staffer contacted by Fortune doesn’t dispute this, but notes that Landrieu did propose a compromise which Republicans rejected.

Arghh!

She was speaking of U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who has emerged as the Senate’s leading oil shale opponent. Salazar inserted the aforementioned moratorium into an omnibus spending bill last December, and in May he proposed a new bill that would extend the moratorium another year.

Salazar’s efforts have essentially pulled the rug out from under Shell (RDSA) and other oil companies which have invested many, many millions into oil shale research since the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which established the original framework for commercial leasing of oil shale lands. (Last year, oil shale represented Shell’s single biggest R&D expenditure.)

Salazar says he’s simply trying to slow things down in order to ensure environmental considerations don’t get trampled in the rush to turn western Colorado into a new Prudhoe Bay. But, ironically, his bid to extend the moratorium comes at a time when his fellow Senate Democrats have been blasting Big Oil for not reinvesting enough of their profits into developing new sources of energy.

I recently spoke with Republican U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Wayne Allard of Colorado, the two lawmakers working hardest to end the oil shale moratorium. Here are some excerpts from the interviews:

funky chicken on June 11, 2008 at 10:39 AM

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who has emerged as the Senate’s leading oil shale opponent. Salazar inserted the aforementioned moratorium into an omnibus spending bill last December, and in May he proposed a new bill that would extend the moratorium another year.

CO and NM have elections to fill open senate seats this year. CO residents need to learn what happens when you elect democrats…..

funky chicken on June 11, 2008 at 10:40 AM

Here’s Steve Pearce, who won the NM GOP primary for the open senate seat:

“Tom and I vote very differently on taxes, on the tough votes to cut wasteful spending – people are very tired of [the wasteful spending in Washington]” he said. “We restrict 85% of our domestic energy and Tom Udall has voted for those restrictions. I have said we should produce it.”

Congressman Pearce has consistently voted to increase domestic production to bring down skyrocketing gas prices, while Tom Udall has opposed using our own domestic resources which results in increased dependence on foreign sources. In the coming days, Pearce will introduce legislation to remove restrictions on domestic production and use the royalty revenue to invest in renewable technologies.

“Right now we’re 20 years or more away from wind and solar making a significant impact on our energy use. We need to accelerate the research.”

So, we’ve got GOP folks (Hatch and Allard) fighting for oil shale against democrats. We’ve got strong conservatives running for US Senate in CO and NM against total wankers. But we’re going to have to stop bitching about the POTUS nominee and join together to fight for this issue.

I’m not sure the “conservative” commentariat is ready to do that.

funky chicken on June 11, 2008 at 10:57 AM

So we have Orrin Hatch, mad as hell at the democrats and willing to fight, name names, and try to win on this issue.

And we have Wade who wants to sit back, surrender, and suck his thumb in the corner.

I know which side I prefer.

funky chicken on June 11, 2008 at 2:10 PM