At least that is what the T-I article from last week says about the Book Cliffs oil sands. Why would any sane person spend 126,000 gallons of perfectly fine water to produce 84,000 gallons of oil, while our lakes are drying up? Just because we can fly to Mars, but we still rely on Stone Age technology for energy?
We cannot even fill up Ken’s Lake. Just wondering how many gallons the lake holds? Once this kind of oil extraction will start in the Spanish Valley, the prices for water will go up for those without wells. That means, if there is water left in the wastewater treatment plant. But how are the residents who are relying on wells, and the farmers and the rancher supposed to compete with 2,500-foot deep wells for oil production? Maybe we need to buy bottled water from China to prepare our food (from China)?
Last year, during the drought in Kentucky, the oil production sites ran out of water. The oil companies had water delivered by trucks over a distance of 100 miles to keep production going, while all lakes nearby went dry. Well, at least they created additional jobs by doing that.
In the budget discussions we hear the politicians saying we cannot spend more than we have! Sounds great, but why is that logic not applied to natural resources? Because the coal and oil lobbyists grease Washington to keep ancient technology alive? The hot air balloon is long gone, so is the steam engine, but we can still not do better than burning fossil resources? Sounds great for campfires, but for a modern industry?
As long as we do not have an alternative for water to grow food, we might finally need to be smart enough to produce short-term renewable energy. Every house has a chimney, why does not every house have solar and a wind generator?
Time to wake up or it seems we will need to drink oil instead of beer.
—Eric Schneider
Moab