Subsidy Spotlight: Publicly Funding a Utah Disaster in the Making
A green stegosaurus graces the logo of Uintah County, Utah, a gateway to the famed Dinosaur National Monument, where breathtaking landscapes and fossils preserved in sandstone attract thousands of visitors every year.
That logo has taken on new meaning over the past decade as prehistoric remains have attracted a different crowd. Now oil and gas executives are flocking to the Uinta Basin in Eastern Utah, as new technologies––and support from the government––offer the dubious possibility of digging up the region’s vast deposits of oil shale and tar sands.
Canadian production of tar sands on a massive scale has familiarized the American public with the petroleum substance that’s comprised of sand, clay, water, and bitumen which, after several rounds of energy-intensive refining, can be turned into fuel that burns dirtier than conventional crude oil, releasing more carbon, heavy metals, and sulphur in the process.
But tar sands production has never happened on a commercial scale within the United States, and less attention is paid to domestic reserves––even though several tar sands mining projects have been in the works for a number of years.
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