It’s a rock, not oil!

Oil shale development has long been a controversial issue in the West due to its history of failed projects despite billions invested by taxpayers and industry. It’s certainly no stranger to us at CEC. While we continue to push for cleaner more efficient types of energy for our future, oil shale continues to pop it’s head up longing for attention. There are so many potential issues with developing oil shale at times it’s difficult to even begin to discuss. For starters, to turn oil shale rock into oil, it must be superheated to 700 degrees or more over a period of months or even years to be turned into oil. No matter how you shake it, developing oil shale is going to be energy intensive and could require enormous amounts of electricity and water to develop.  No one knows just how much water oil shale companies would use or pollute, but we do know oil shale speculation poses an unacceptable risk to Western families, rivers, and our farmers and ranchers. That dice of speculation is one that we at CEC are not willing to roll. Recently the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided that research should happen beforecommercial development, demonstrating that they too are not ready to roll the oil shale dice.

Currently, BLM is completing a planning process for the future of oil shale development in the West, based on Secretary Salazar’s decision in February 2011 to take a fresh look at the oil shale plan released in 2008.  That plan opened up 2 million acres of western public lands to oil shale, despite the fact that the BLM clearly acknowledged that it did not know what the real impacts of development would be. Just last week however, Secretary Salazar adopted a plan that better protects our water, air and quality of life in western Colorado from costly oil shale speculation. The plan put forth allocates over 1,000 square miles of public lands to conduct research, development and demonstration (RD&D) before converting that land to commercial leasing. This is still massive amount of public land, for an industry that has yet to prove itself. While we think the current approach by BLM is on the right track, the question remains as to whether we should be allocating our public lands to research and development of oil shale or if we should be putting our public resources toward cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. For more information on oil shale, it’s past, present, and future visit: www.oilshalfacts.org.

We can hardly read a newspaper or watch television this summer without another story related to the drought, just yesterday the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that “tough water measures” are anticipated for 2013.  Generations past knew this was an arid region, our farms, ranches, recreation and other economic drivers have relied on the Colorado River to sustain us.

Just one of Colorado’s rivers worth protecting, Beaver Creek is a renowned coldwater fishery.

This is why more than 100 individuals, business leaders, outdoor recreation organizations, farmers, ranchers, owners of wineries and breweries among others signed a letter asking the Bureau of Land Management to make smart decisions for oil shale development to protect our water today and for the future.

Within the letter, signers urged that:

“We have to be smart about oil shale, or we risk the future of Colorado’s farms and ranches, the ability of municipalities to meet water needs for Colorado families, or having enough water in our rivers for recreational uses such as fishing and rafting. We do not have to choose between energy production and meeting our water needs if we take the right approach.”

Facing our severe drought, they are not alone in wanting to ensure that water impacts are fully evaluated before any commercial development of oil shale ensues:

“The technology behind oil shale development is unproven and could pose an unacceptable risk to Colorado’s water. No one knows just how much water would be needed for oil shale or what the full potential threat to water quality is in our state” continues the letter.

What’s more is that oil shale companies already own the water rights they need to develop oil shale. Big oil companies have established conditional water rights throughout western Colorado that could potentially be used for oil shale. Rather than giving big oil access to our water, these signers aks that the oil shale industry first prove they can develop the resource in a way that does not pollute or drain our water supply.  We, at CEC agree with these signers as we continue to work hard to protect the Colorado River, aptly dubbed the “lifeblood of the West.” We aim to protect the Coloradan way of life and encourage you to join us!

To learn more about our effort or to get involved visit www.90by20.org and www.oilshalefacts.org

Mountain sunset in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Mountains matter across the globe. It’s up to us to protect them!

In Colorado we love our mountains; it’s a source of state pride, offering uncountable breathtaking vistas and recreational opportunities as well as so much more. “The Mountain Pavilion” was just one of the many pavilions that CEC attended at the Rio+20 Conference on sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this past week. Outside the pavilion several signs touted what we know to be oh so true in Colorado:

• Mountains balance our climate and our lives
• Mountains connect us all
• Mountains are our water sources and reservoirs
• Mountains are our future heritage
• Mountains are home of glaciers and people

Mountains are all of this and so much more! For me mountains provide rejuvenation, solace and a connection to something bigger. Why do mountains matter to you?

On the eve of the official Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development “Rio+Social” invited the world to participate in a ten hour conference on the role social media plays in building a sustainable future. Attendees could access this conference via a live stream or in person.  As, a relatively new convert to the power of social media, I choose to attend in person. We were encouraged to share trending topics with our networks around the world; tweet, pin, post, blog, tumble, connect! Rio+Social self-identified as “an innovative event and global conversation about the nexus of social media, technology, and sustainability”– and what an exciting conversation it was!

Severn Suzuki delivering the world’s 6-min speech.

Messages in the sound bites that epitomize social media included: “more, more, MORE is the DNA of business–that needs to change; to young people: come up with new ideas, imagine a new world, don’t be contaminated by the past; challenge leaders to live up to their word–via social media; the economic crisis is not an excuse for not doing what we need to do for sustainable development; GO PLANET!; the power is yours–working together young people can save the planet and save humanity; change and dramatic change is what is needed; from youth: leaders you must listen!; we deliver powerful political messages via cell phones, using technology to support sustainable programs; social media is like water–dilution is the solution to narcissistic pollution; and ultimately from the twitter world–we are united by our hope for a better tomorrow. We must seize this moment.”

As I said, I’m relatively new to the world of social media and a skeptic at best to its power to change the world. But, during that 10 hours watching my twitter feed, seeing tweets from all over the world, and knowing that at least in Brazil (home of Rio+20) #rioplussocial was in the top trending hash tags that day, I became a believer. Thousands around the world are connecting across all types of borders about IMPORTANT, relevant environmental topics via social media. We are finding like-minded people, we are building movements, and we are making change—it was chilling to watch and participate. Don’t misunderstand, I still don’t believe that tweeting takes the place of writing legislators and “showing up” for important events–slacktivsm does not equal activism. However, activism via social media is the future of social movements and it is powerful.