It’s public land. It’s your land. The fossil fuel industry wants it. Their dream: to drill, bulldoze, strip-mine, blow up and dry up two million more acres of our land for profit. They see our beautiful, wild West–our open prairies and soaring redrock canyons–as expendable, and our BLM is poised to give it over.
The UK’s Guardian called tar sands mining in Alberta, Canada the most destructive project on Earth. The United States has been spared this scourge–but that could soon change. Canadian companies have their sights set on areas just north of Utah’s pristine canyon country, where the majority of the tar sands deposits in the United States are safely stored beneath breathtaking, otherworldly natural landscape.
But it isn’t too late.
The BLM is having a series of public meetings right now. The comments at these meetings are put into the public record, which makes them admissible in court, should The People be forced to sue the government later on. There is a very limited time left to submit comments; they are due no later than May 15th. Submit your comments on this issue to the BLM by clicking here.
Copy your personal message to the BLM into the comments under this article. Feel free to share your own insights, and to borrow any information from the talking points to follow when submitting your viewpoint.
Stopping the advancement of the ruthless and outdated fossil fuel industry, which is responsible for catastrophic climate change, is our duty. We know this; recent actions at the U.S. Department of the Interior in D.C., at which 21 peaceful protesters (including four Utahns) were arrested, illustrate that the public is ready to fight the fossil fuel industry to protect the natural world we cherish.
So, what do you think? Should we sacrifice 2 million acres of public, taxpayer lands for tar sands and oil shale development?
Some talking points for your comments to the BLM:
Oil shale is projected to have huge impacts on water supplies in the West. The latest water use estimates for oil shale development range from three times the amount consumed annually in Mesa County, Colorado (110,000 acre ft) to 50% more than the Denver Metro area consumes annually (378,000 acre ft). Either scenario would have enormous impacts on the West, whose desert climate makes existing water resources already scarce enough.
Oil shale would have significant impacts to wildlife and fish populations. The land overlying oil shale resources in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming is some of the best wildlife habitat in the West. Elk, deer, and aquatic species would be seriously impacted by a full-scale oil-shale industry. BLM estimated in its draft Environmental Impact Statement that large-scale oil shale development would result in the permanent loss of up to 50 percent of BLM stream fisheries in the area of development, up to 35 percent of Colorado River cutthroat trout fisheries, and up to 11 percent of available nest and brood range for blue and sage grouse.
Oil shale requires a huge amount of electricity to heat it enough to extract a liquid from the rock. The BLM’s initial estimates show that producing 1 million barrels per day would require ten new coal-fired power plants, each with a capacity to power a city of 500,000 people.
During over 100 years of industry efforts to develop oil shale – during which not one barrel of oil has been commercially produced – Colorado communities have been subject to the economic devastation wreaked by failed attempts. Historically, “boom and bust” industries have had negative long-term and immediate impacts on regional economies. Claims that investing in tar sands and oil shale development will help to fund better public programs and the health of the local economy and its citizens are false.
Oil shale is a dirty fuel of the past. We have to shut down those responsible for perpetuating contributions to catastrophic climate change, the effects of which are already devastating vulnerable communities all over the world. As a nation we should be investing in clean energy sources of the future, not wasting our time promoting dirty energy sources of the past like oil shale and tar sands.
Remember, time is limited to submit your comments. Click here now and tell the BLM that we will not allow this devastation to occur in our community and our state; that we will not surrender our irreplaceable public lands to benefit the industry that is responsible for sacrificing our climate, our future, and our natural world in the name of profit and short-sighted greed.
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