Americans are worried about energy, with record high oil costs and soaring gas prices hurting our families and our economy. And, once again, some politicians are hailing oil shale as the solution to our energy problems.

Coloradans will remember that we’ve been here before. And if the last oil shale boom-and-bust taught us anything, it’s that stampeding down this path before we’ve even figured out if the technology works can lead to economic disaster.

Our state has some of the most important deposits of oil shale, and Coloradans — particularly those on the Western Slope — will be directly affected by its development.

A 2005 RAND Corporation report spelled out both oil shale’s potential and how its development can affect our land, our air quality and the quality and quantity of our very limited water supplies, putting great stress on Western Slope communities. In short, it reminded Coloradans how much we had at stake when Congress debated the oil shale provisions of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which set the stage for today’s oil shale debate.

One part of the 2005 law set up a program for oil shale research, development and demonstration projects. I think that makes good sense and deserves support.

But another part calls for simultaneously starting the process for commercial-scale development, without waiting to see if the demonstration projects are even successful.

It just doesn’t make sense to set the stage for a rush to commercial development before we know how to do it right and before Colorado’s communities have a chance to prepare for what will follow.

An expert from the RAND Corp. put it this way just last year in a statement about oil shale’s future: “The economic, technical, and environmental feasibility of oil shale development is not adequate to support the formulation of a commercial leasing program on the timescale mandated” by the 2005 law.

He also said “the fundamental approach the Department of the Interior is currently taking may be counterproductive if the goal is to keep open the option for a sustainable domestic oil shale industry.”

Put plain and simple: We still don’t really know how to develop oil shale in a way that makes economic sense and in a way that protects scarce water resources.

And if we don’t want to send the Western Slope into another economic crash, we’d better figure that out before we try to kick-start another crash program.

That’s why I have joined forces with Rep. John Salazar and Sen. Ken Salazar to bring some sanity back to this process. We have worked hard to create legislation that is designed to ensure the research and development programs going on right now produce results before a rush to open up commercial-scale leases begins.

The House of Representatives, after full and open debate, approved those legislative efforts, including a moratorium on commercial leasing that was included in the 2008 Interior Department funding bill that was signed by President Bush.

Now, high gas prices are making politicians look for “easy” answers. But instead of playing politics with oil shale, the president and others should listen to the people on Colorado’s Western Slope who have lived the consequences of irresponsible development.

The question has never been whether or not to develop oil shale. Instead, the question is how it can be done in a way that makes good sense and can help, rather than hurt, the Western Slope’s economy.

That responsible approach is in the best interests of all Coloradans, especially residents of the Western Slope, because oil shale development can affect our future even more than it has colored our past.

For decades, oil shale dreamers have come and gone on the Western Slope, with billions spent but leaving little but old mines and rusting gear to remind us of their dreams.

We should recall Churchill’s statement that “facts are better than dreams” — especially the dreams that can come from “oil shale fever,” a disease that acts like a roller coaster: First you feel on top of the world, then the bottom drops out and down you plunge.

That’s what happened between the 1973 oil embargo and when the fever broke on oil shale’s “Black Sunday” in 1982.

We need to learn from that experience and proceed in a way that will reduce the chance of a new epidemic.

Rep. Mark Udall is the congressman from Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, which includes part of western Colorado. He is the Democratic candidate seeking to replace Wayne Allard in the U.S. Senate.