Red Rock Rape - Ripping Up Moab For A Thimbleful Of Oil

[hatrack]

"You couldn’t ask for a more scenic oil well than the Long Canyon facility in southeastern Utah. In fact, if it weren’t for the stench of petroleum fumes, and the constant up-and-down whir of the pump jack, you might be tempted to disregard it altogether in favour of the breathtaking vista it affords across a layered red rock landscape out towards the ancient geological splendours of Arches National Park. As it is, it sits like a great sore on the landscape, bleeding toxins into the ground, slowly killing off the ancient junipers that provide ground cover on the otherwise unforgiving desert terrain, and blowing ozone-depleting gas byproducts directly into the air.

An open sludge pit sits exposed to the elements right next to the pump jack. There used to be a second sludge pit, but it was buried in gravel a couple of years ago after journalists in Utah to cover the Salt Lake City Olympics started coming round and asking awkward questions. The poisonous chemicals still remain active underground, and one can see where they have travelled through the soil by the pattern of dead foliage extending downhill. What could possibly justify such a blight on some of the most stunning scenery in the American West? A plentiful oil supply would certainly be one argument, but the scandal of Long Canyon, and dozens of wells like it, is that it is pitifully unproductive. Although its owners have sometimes claimed that it is the top oil-producing oil well in Utah, official statistics compiled by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, an environmentalist group, show that it ranks number 209 in the state for oil production, and number 275 for oil and gas production combined. When one considers that Utah as a whole accounts for just 1 per cent of oil and gas production in the United States, one has to wonder what exactly it is doing there.

Government agencies insist the oil wells are temporary, and that once the ground has been fully exploited the terrain will go back to its previous pristine state. But conservationists point out that, in a desert environment, the roadways and dead trees and toxic leaching leave scars on the landscape that will persist for generations.

EDIT

The economics of the issue are so bizarre as to seem downright insane. Geologists know where the biggest oil repositories are in Utah, and they are not in the Moab area. They are around the well-exploited towns of Price, in the central part of the state, and Vernal, in the northeast. Even there, though, the quantities are less than overwhelming. According to estimates made by the US Geological Survey, a government agency, the amount of untapped, technologically recoverable oil and gas in the whole of Utah is probably enough to supply US oil needs for about three weeks and gas needs for about eight and a half months. Less than 10 per cent of the total is in areas once considered for wilderness protection – enough to feed US oil demand for about four days. No big oil company has expressed the remotest interest in setting up in business in this part of Utah. Rather, it is small companies who come hoping to find just one or two decent pockets of oil they can exploit before bailing out again. According to industry experts, small energy companies like to acquire leaseholds, whether or not they are likely sources of oil and gas, because they can use them to pad out their portfolios and attract investment capital."

EDIT

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=573560

[ochazuke]

1. Take action with SUWA.org

The BLM comment period was recently extended for one of those oil and gas development plans, so you can send them letters and emails saying 'protect our natural heritage'. Public comment seems to have been a factor in the recent decision to cancel plans to develop a part of the Rocky Mountain front. You may have seen that on NOW with Bill Moyers.

http://www.suwa.org

That's the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Lots of information and beautiful photos of land at risk.

[phantom power]

2. Super. Now they're raping the land just to cook their books???

Bad enough when they were doing it for oil, but for the love of god, at least we can *use* the oil.

Now they're going to drill it so that they can snow their investors???

??????