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Show . Jack-Straws. By Jack Wallis ; ' genial area booming? Is it go- m? These two questions are ' being asked. Especially ' lls' week's news coverage con- MUD's study into the need for a ommuriity even larger than Ver-, Ver-, question of when will the boom . 1 ten uppermost in the minds of al businessmen. u the talk about the recession, ;ar(1t visualize the effects a real ( d have on a community. In i boom doesn't hit soon a lot of Jesses -are going to be hard i, several years now we have the developments that are " someday hit this area. The , , ur oil shale and tar sands, the ;im ,larSe Power plant and a . reservoir, all a few miles -u erna1' have given the impres-. impres-. someday an economic boom ly.hit- UP until now it has Just talk , of what is in store for the , ountry of western Colorado : v h was recently explain-...n, explain-...n, the largest corporation in -Xi818 recently reported that '4ftt!ic,was60in8tohit -,2, ?'' sha'e country would ?in world history. The on shale pits that should - 'Jtah- rado's P'ceance Basin t-s lhmtah Basin would rank i of sJrealest man-made ac-oU ac-oU H y' Total excavation in kch'al a Panama Canal a ; ol f , ,?M Produce a million 2000 ,! ai,y- Eacn wuld re-S re-S miners, and 8,000 refinery ledbv'tK0" barrels a dav could L',WlarSPrmLSitumetnod usin8 lshl lhe mines, said Ex- Ndv ?ms' total 8 million k Present n f Would exceed the V'ial surtnu ; 0,1 'mports. The lscoa f 13 trillion barrels 031 Serves and should last the nation 175 years, said the Exxon report. If the Exxon report is only close to what is going to happen in the oil shale country, the boom will surely hit and when it does no one will be saying "Where's the boom?" Right now our local economy could use a little boom, but to get hit like Exxon Exx-on says it is going to hit, we all might be better off suffering through a recession. Being the OPEC for the U.S. at the tune of eight million barrels of oil a day is staggering. There must be an easier way to supply the energy needs of the U.S. After digesting the Exxon oil shale report, there are still tar sands, gilsonite and phosphate developments to swallow. And then add a few coal-fired coal-fired power plants for dessert, it would seem that the basin may have a fatal case of indigestion, instead of just a little lit-tle shot in the economy. Whether it's boom or bust only time will tell. But with all the warning and forewarning, we hope a few things can be done to preserve some of the assets of living in the west that we all take foregranted. These include clear skies, beautiful white clouds and colorful sunsets, clear cold water, fresh invigorating in-vigorating cool air, even quiet secluded places where a person can be all alone, abundant wildlife in its natural state, flowers,- trees, birds, pure rain and snow. Is it possible to retain the good things in our great outdoors and still have an eight million barrel a day oil shale operation in our backyard? We doubt it. What can we do to accept the changes in life style that the boom will bring? bring'.' How large is the boom going to be? Can it be controlled? A boom is an awesome thing. It can be likened to the discovery of fire. It can destroy an entire en-tire way of life, or if properly controlled, controll-ed, it can be used for the future comfort and welfare of mankind. |