ABSTRACT
Oil shale development will result in the emission of pollutants that could contribute to poor air quality. To understand how oil shale development could affect air quality and how air quality regulations may constrain oil shale development, this chapter begins with an overview of the air quality regulations and of existing air quality within Utah’s Uinta Basin. It then discusses the air pollutant emissions that are anticipated to result from oil shale development and how the convergence of emissions and evolving regulations is likely to affect the nascent oil shale industry. Next, this chapter
CONTENTS
12.1 Air Quality Regulation and the Existing Conditions within the Uinta Basin ..................................................................................................308 12.1.1 Air Quality Policy ..........................................................................308 12.1.2 Air Quality in the Uinta Basin .....................................................308 12.1.3 Oil Shale Development and Air Quality ....................................309 12.1.4 Indian Country Jurisdiction and the Need for
Collaboration .............................................................................. 311 12.2 Estimating GHG and Air Impacts from In Situ Oil Shale
Development ............................................................................................... 312 12.2.1 Methods ........................................................................................... 312
12.2.1.1 Net Energy Ratio ............................................................. 313 12.2.1.2 Total and Normalized GHG and VOC Emissions ..... 314
12.2.2 Results ............................................................................................. 315 12.3 Comparing Oil Shale’s Net Energy Ratio and Carbon Footprint
to Other Fuels ............................................................................................. 319 12.3.1 Wellhead GHG Emissions ............................................................ 319 12.3.2 Life Cycle GHG Emissions ........................................................... 320
12.4 Carbon Management Policies................................................................... 323 12.5 Opportunities for GHG and Ozone-Precursor Emission
Reductions .............................................................................................. 323 12.6 Conclusions ................................................................................................. 324 References ............................................................................................................. 325
discusses emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and of the chemical precursors of ozone (O3), the pollutants of greatest concern with respect to air quality within the Uinta Basin. The discussion summarizes the modeling of both types of emissions from the in situ oil shale scenarios presented in Chapters 10 and 11. Oil shale’s carbon footprint and net energy ratio (NER) are then compared to the carbon footprint and NER of other liquid transportation fuels in order to understand emissions in the context of broader energy policy. This chapter concludes with a summary of rapidly developing carbon management policies.
