August 29, 2007 05:07 PM UTC

Sen. Penry gets a clue

• 4 Comments
• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Today the GJ Sentinel is reporting that Sen. Josh Penry (R-GJ) is urging a ‘go slow’ approach on commercial oil shale development, primarily due to the massive amounts of water it would require from an already over allocated river system. 

As the Sentinel reports:

The 2005 Energy Policy Act requires the BLM to act quickly to lease land in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah for commercial oil shale development. The agency’s draft oil shale environmental analysis, or programmatic environmental impact statement, is due later this year, with leasing possibly occurring late this decade.

How the state chooses to manage the remaining water in the Colorado River Basin is a tremendous decision, which requires a “methodical” approach, Penry said.

“That’s the reason I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to rush to a commercial decision on oil shale before the R&D (research and development) phase is complete,” he said.

“Let’s figure out a technology that actually works; let’s figure out what that production method will mean for our water and other resources; then let’s make a judgment about the future of oil shale with all of the information in front of us and our eyes wide open,” he said.

This position is, of course, what the conservation and sportsmen groups, Reps. Udall and Salazar and Sen. Salazar, and many communities facing the possibility of yet more industrial activity coming to their communities have been urging all along. 

Kudos to Sens. Penry for getting a clue, and standing up for his actual constituents, and not the fat-cat moneyed interests he seems intent on representing as he opposes protection for places like Roan Plateau.