H. Lee Scamehorn

Interesting but perhaps too narrowly focused. Author Lee Scamehorn is a history professor at University of Colorado; his treatment of fossil fuel production in Colorado focuses on economic history; there is much discussion of corporate mergers, production figures, labor disputes, government policies and so forth without much about the geology or technology of coal, oil and natural gas extraction.


My background, of course, was in environmental compliance and remediation and my particular interest in fossil fuel production has always been figuring out where the mines and refineries were to make sure I wasn’t going to dig into one; thus the focus of High Altitude Energy was not quite where I would have preferred. Still there were plenty of interesting little tidbits.


Colorado energy developed relatively early. Scamehorn mentions coal mining in the 1860s but doesn’t cite any actual mine locations; however, the oil wells near Cañon City are well documented as first opening in 1862, shortly after the Titusville well in Pennsylvania in 1859 (and thus the second “oil strike” in the United States). The original Colorado oil wells were hand-dug and wooden cased; the oil extracted was used for lubrication, as there was no real market for the lighter fractions. By the 1880s, though, coal was being mined at a number of sites – Denver used about 200000 tons of coal per year in 1881. About 40% of that (Scamehorn estimates that number based on national data) went for railroad boiler fuel; the remainder for space heating at homes and industries. With the founding of the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mills in Pueblo an increasing amount of coal went for blast furnace coke; and coke also began to be used instead of charcoal in smelters. (Scamehorn shows some of his technology weakness here, simply explaining smelting as extracting metals with heat. What actually happens is the carbon in coke is not only a heating fuel but also a reducing agent).


Yet another early use of coal was for manufactured gas. Scamehorn correctly identifies the first gas plant in Colorado at 18th and Wewatta Street in Denver in 1870; however, he implies that this plant remained in operation for the duration of gas manufacture. In fact it was quickly superseded by a larger Public Service plant where the Pepsi Center sports arena is now. The 18th and Wewatta plant was converted to make Pintsch gas, which is more compressible than ordinary manufactured gas and was thus popular for use in portable applications – such as railroad carriages. Even the Pintsch gas plant was closed by 1910 as electric light came into use on the railroads. Scamehorn also doesn’t explain manufactured gas very well, at one point describing it as “pure methane” and in all but one case saying it was made from distillation of coal (this was initially true but the retort distillation process was quickly displaced by “water gas”, which is mostly carbon monoxide and hydrogen and is made by thermal breakdown of steam and coal).


After the initial discovery the Colorado oil industry stayed flat for years; there were small fields around Florence and Boulder. (There were refineries in both cities; I wish he had provided more information on the Boulder refinery, which is only described as “north of the city”). Eventually Colorado developed a substantial number of wells but all were relatively low producing. Several large oil companies had headquarters in Denver during the “oil boom”, but most have now moved elsewhere.


Oil shale gets a chapter to itself, with an interesting discussion of the politics. Scamehorn contends that pressure for oil shale development came from the US government, with oil companies resisting because (according to Scamehorn) the oil companies had interests in overseas oil and were thus not enthusiastic about domestic production. However, he also notes that an oil shale plant requires billions in capital and return on investment requires a guarantee of long term steep oil prices).


Politics also comes in with natural gas. With the current meme of the progressive US government forcing greedy energy companies to start using natural gas instead of polar-bear-drowning coal, it’s instructive to remember the US government banned the use of natural gas for energy production in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crunch and promoted the use of coal.


High Altitude Energy was published in 2002 and thus doesn’t have anything to say about fracking and oil production. Nuclear energy is not mentioned directly (Scamehorn has another book about uranium mining in Colorado). However, he does mention the nuclear bombs used in Colorado for gas and oil shale development. Once again, Scamehorn notes that the impetus for these came from the government, not from energy companies; gas and oil lease holders were involved in the lawsuits against them out of fears that their holdings would be rendered valueless by radioactive contamination.


Pretty instructive, given the limitations. I detect a hint of liberal politics – the final chapter closes with the note that President George W. Bush “refused to commit the United States to the Kyoto Protocol” – but it isn’t objectionably blatant. Illustrations are either historic photos of mines and wells or depictions of various mining and drilling practices from the US Department of Energy. Some of the text, particularly production figures, could have been much better presented as tables. The bibliography is excellent and extensive, with a bibliographic essay chapter on how the various references were used, but unfortunately there are no footnotes or endnotes which means someone wishing to verify Scamehorn’s data or contentions will have to dig for them.… (mehr)