Diary of a Mad Voter. Happy Earth Day, How About An Oil Lease? By Joan McCarter. New West.
The vast “resources” of oil shale in Utah and Colorado have been hyped for perhaps a hundred years, but no one has figured out how to get this “oil*” our of the rocks in an economic manner or how to deal with the environmental impacts that will probably dwarf the impacts of oil sands mining in Alberta.
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* Note: the oil in oil shale is actually kerogen, which consists of a changing variety of various organic chemicals.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
