SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
Grand Junction City Hall, 250 N 5th Street, Grand Junction, Colorado
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
9:00 a.m. Mountain Time

• Official hearing transcript
• In Case You Missed It - Subcommittee Examines Roadblocks to Oil Shale Production, Job Creation at Colorado Field Hearing (8/25/2011)
• Press Release - Delays By Obama Administration in Oil Shale Production Hinder Job Creation, Economic Growth (8/24/2011)
• Committee Action - Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources to Hold Field Hearing on Domestic Oil Shale Research, Regulation and Roadblocks (8/9/2011)

OVERSIGHT FIELD HEARING ON:

• "American Jobs and Energy Security: Domestic Oil Shale the Status of Research, Regulation and Roadblocks"

Watch the Archived Hearing Webcast:

OPENING STATEMENT:

The Honorable Doug Lamborn
Chairman

WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY:

Panel I

Helen Hankins
Colorado State Director
Bureau of Land Management

Accompanied by:
Ronald C. Johnson
Oil Shale Assessment Project Chief
U.S. Geological Survey

Panel II

Michael Hagood
Director
Program and Regional Development
Idaho National Laboratory

Thomas Sladek, PhD
Director
Ockham Energy Services
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Jennifer Spinti
Research Assoc. Professor,
Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Institute for Clean and Secure Energy
University of Utah
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Anu Mittal
Director
Natural Resources and Environment Division
Government Accountability Office

Panel III

Dan Whitney
Upstream Americas Heavy Oil Development Manager
Shell Exploration and Production Company
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Gary Aho
Board Member / Former Chairman
National Oil Shale Association
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Brad McCloud
Executive Director
Environmentally Conscious Consumers for Oil Shale
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Jim Spehar
Former Mayor of Grand Junction, CO /
Former Mesa County Commissioner
(Truth in Testimony Form)

BACKGROUND:

This hearing will address the research, regulation and roadblocks to oil shale production in the United States. The largest known deposits of oil shale are located in a 16,000-square mile area in the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. According to USGS estimates, the region may hold more than 1.5 trillion barrels of oil – six times Saudi Arabia’s proven resources, and enough to provide the United States with energy for the next 200 years. Over 350,000 jobs would be created by the development of our oil shale resources (Management Information Systems 2/06).