Show Luck Lack of capital holding bark back back oil shale industry Oil bit shale hale Is s ready to make a contribution to U U. S S. S energy Independence now and a sound guaranteed federally-guaranteed loan program will give it the initial needed to get it underway underway underway un un- derway an official of The Oil all Shale Corporation TOSCO TaSCa told a Congressional committee Wednesday October 8 8 Charles II 11 Brown a senior TOSCO vice president said the program to help get a pioneer oil shale plant built will also bring new companies and new Investors Into the energy Industry Industry Industry In In- and make it more creative and competitive A LACK of capital at reasonable rates not technology is holding back oil shale development said Brown Brownin in a statement before the House louse Science and Technology Committee After Alter the first plants are operating we believe their results will be positive and there will be no further need for government assistance The House blouse is considering legislation already passed 92 2 by the Senate and endorsed in concept by the White House to provide loan guarantees es or other incentives to get the synthetic fuels industry underway underway underway un un- un- un derway The committees committee's hearings on oil shale development with Representative Timothy Wirth D-Colorado D serving as chairman will move to Rifle RiCIe Boulder and Denver later this month Brown said there have been similar precedents for federal help in the past in programs such as the development of commercial aircraft and construction of railroads and housing AID is needed to build the generation first-generation shale plants he testified because in inthe inthe inthe the present economy private investors wont won't commit the 1 billion in term long-term funds for barrel-a- barrel required a da day And major oil are are hampered hamper d because their major production n efforts are already committed to conventional oil projects such as Alaska the North Sea and offshore The first commercial shale plants will demonstrate convincingly convincingly convincingly con con- that production from the vast domestic U. U S S. S oil reso resource is both economically and environmentally feasible said Browne Brown We e believe that com com- size mercial-size oil shale plants can be built and operated successfully successfully successfully suc suc- in the US U.S. without strip-mining strip without violating standards the governments government's governments government's governments government's govern govern- ments ment's sulfur dioxide air pollution regulations without surface and water pollution and without jeopardizing water resources ruining streams or destroying wildlife SOCIOECONOMIC ECONOMIC impacts from the industry will also be manageable if they are approached approached approached ap ap- ap- ap realistically on a problem-by-problem problem and plant plant- plant by-plant basis he contended and not with the idea that eight or ten plants will spring up overnight In just one area of one state stale But the oil shale executive warned that without orderly development now the worsening worsening worsening wor wor- U U. S S. S dependence on foreign energy supplies will probably result in a great number of synthetic fuels plants being built in a rush in the to make up for lost time This would be a tragedy in our opinion because it would strain the capacity of steel plants fabricators and the skilled labor force dramatically and lead to unnecessary environmental environmental environmental en en- and socioeconomic socioeconomic socioeconomic socio- socio economic complications If a day barrel-a-day shale plant using TOSCO's process were operating today he said its low sulfur oil would be competitive with the same quality Middle East crude oil at U. U S S. S ports It may not be the ultimate technology it may be bea a DC 3 instead of a DC 10 but it works TOSCO IS a partner in two oil shale ventures in northwestern Colorado the Colony Development Operation on private land north of Grand Valley and the Federal Lease Tract C-b C In Rio Blanco County Last March the company submitted a proposal to the Federal Energy Administration requesting a government guarantee for 75 per cent of the loans needed to build the first size commercial-size plant A 1000 ton-a-day ton semi works plant using the TOSCO process has been successfully tested at the Colony site |