Regional
(2010-02-23)
DENVER, CO
(KUNC) -
Shell Oil has pulled its application to obtain water rights from the Yampa River in northwestern Colorado for future oil shale mining. The company says it's abandoning its quest for now because the global economic downturn has set the project back. A spokesman could not be reached for further comment Tuesday night. But the news is being cheered by a host of environmental groups and local officials.
"In northwest Colorado, we were very concerned about the impacts with the current construction technique that they were proposing," says Routt County Commissioner Doug Monger.
The county is one of 25 entities that filed formal protests against Shell's proposal. Monger says the county also had concerns with the amount of resources that were going to be required to extract the water.
Critics of Shell's plan and of oil shale development worry the technology is speculative, and will require more water than is available. Monger says this week's news is a victory for now. But he says there still are threats to the Yampa down the road. The river is thought to be the only river left in the state that may still have water available for use by industry and cities.
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