Companies and investors reject Utah’s unconventional fuels
Vernal, Utah – US Oil Sands Inc., the company attempting to open the United States’ first commercial tar sands mine, announced that is putting the project on hold due to an inability to attract investors. Forecasts of worsening climate change and water shortages have compelled the close scrutiny of speculative plans, like those of US Oil Sands, to develop high-carbon, water-intensive tar sands and oil shale deposits in the Colorado River Basin.
“Despite this temporary reprieve, defenders of the Colorado watershed remain aware that the foreign corporation pushing for the first commercial tar sands strip mine in America is chomping at the bit to move forward, and claim they will do so in January of 2017,” said Jennifer Ekstrom, director of the award-winning documentary Last Rush for the Wild West: Tar Sands, Oil Shale and the American Frontier. “Under the upcoming Trump Administration, the entire landscape containing tar sands and oil shale, almost a million acres, is at even greater risk of this dirtiest type of strip mining. We will remain vigilant and continue fighting this extraordinary threat.”
The company’s PR Spring mine is located in a remote landscape behind the Book Cliffs in eastern Utah. US Oil Sands plans to strip mine for the tar sands and then use an industrial strength solvent to access the hydrocarbon. The process results in 100% land destruction, carries a hefty carbon footprint, and threatens to contaminate scarce groundwater resources in the arid high desert.
“We see here that US Oil Sands continues to be stilted up by the few with deep pockets and opposed by the many with clear and steadfast vision for a better future,” says Lauren Wood of Green River Action Project, A Colorado Riverkeeper Affiliate. “Even under a Trump administration, it is nonsensical to advance an industry with a carbon and water footprint so extreme that it threatens the very future of the Colorado River Basin.”
US Oil Sands’ statement comes on the heels of announcements that numerous major companies have ended their attempts to exploit oil shale and tar sands in the Colorado River Basin. ExxonMobil, Shell, American Shale Oil, and Chevron all terminated their oil shale research, demonstration, and development efforts in the Green River Basin. And a pending federal commercial lease for the Asphalt Ridge tar sands mine in Utah’s Uinta Basin has been stalled since 2014.
“US Oil Sands has been promising immediate development with breakthrough technology for six years and now, with 98% of the infrastructure in place, all but essential personnel have been laid off. This clearly indicates that investors have no confidence in this project,” says John Weisheit of Living Rivers and Colorado Riverkeeper.
“The announcement represents yet another example of an oil shale or tar sand project that is unable to make the finances work,” says Lesley Adams of the Waterkeeper Alliance. “Developing unconventional fuels in the Colorado River Basin would fundamentally undermine our national climate goals and threaten scarce water supplies; it is simply not a viable path towards energy independence.”
Contacts:
John Weisheit, Living Rivers and Colorado Riverkeeper, (435) 259-1063, [email protected] Lesley Adams, Waterkeeper Alliance, (541) 821-3882, [email protected]
Jennifer Eckstrom, (208) 304.2319, [email protected]
Lauren Wood, Green River Action Project, A Colorado Riverkeeper Affiliate, (801) 647-1540, [email protected]