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An Analysis of the Effects of the Impacts of Oil Shale Development on the Economy of the Uintah Basin

The development of oil shale resources will have a significant impact on the Uintah Basin in Utah. To analyze this impact, this study used a regionalized imput-output model. The input-output table for the State of Utah was revised to fit the Uintah Basin, using the RAS technique.
The scarcity of water in the Basin may cause a shift of water use from irrigated agriculture to oil shale. This reduction in agricultural production was estimated, using demand curves for water in agriculture and an intergen programming model which generated minimum water requirements for shale developments from 25,000 barrels per day to 250,000 barrels per day.
The inclusion of agricultural decline and of the shale industry's rows and columns, based on previous studies, allowed the estimation of a type IV multiplier. The input-output table was closed, and regional gross output estimated for the various levels of shale production.
Results indicate very large changes in retail and wholesale trade, real estate and housing, and public service sectors for high levels of shale production. The loss in agricultural production appears to have almost insignificant effects in comparison. Local planners may be faced with providing significant increases in services, and a large expansion of the private sectors if shale development is substantial.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-4389
Date01 May 1978
CreatorsKaufman, David Zachary
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

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