BLM Oil Shale

From: Seattle PI

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The U.S. Department of the Interior scaled back a Bush administration plan Friday to lease Western range lands for development of oil shale and tar sands, the unconventional sources of oil found in pockets of the Rocky Mountains.

Federal officials said they were set to authorize 1,250 square miles of public land for commercial leasing in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. That’s a third of the range lands that President George W. Bush planned to offer, and the new administration said it was taking wilderness-quality lands off the table.

From:  Fox 13 – Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY – Dozens of protesters gathered at the Bureau of Land Management Office in downtown Salt Lake City on Monday to voice their opposition to massive tar sands and oil shale plans in Utah.

The groups Peaceful Uprising and Utah Tar Sands Resistance say their protest is in response to a recent decision to lease nearly one million acres of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming public lands for tar sands and oil shale development.

From: The Hill

The Interior Department on Friday issued a final plan to close 1.6 million acres of federal land in the West originally slated for oil shale development.

The proposed plan would fence off a majority of the initial blueprint laid out in the final days of the George W. Bush administration. It faces a 30-day protest period and a 60-day process to ensure it is consistent with local and state policies. After that, the department would render a decision for implementation.

The move is sure to rankle Republicans, who say President Obama’s grip on fossil fuel drilling in federal lands is too tight.

From: Senator Orrin Hatch

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) today blasted an announcement by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to drastically limit research, demonstration and development of oil shale and tar sands in the West, including areas in Utah. Today’s announcement cuts the amount of land available for oil shale and tar sands land considerably from what was opened for leasing in 2008.

From: BLM

November 9, 2012

Washington, D.C. – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today published a proposed plan to promote research, demonstration and development (RD&D) of oil shale and tar sand resources on BLM-administered land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The final programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) and plan amendments would make nearly 700,000 acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming available for research and development of oil shale, and about 130,000 acres in Utah for activities related to tar sands.

From: Daily Sentinel

Editor’s Note: The following are letters printed in the Daily Sentinel.  The letters illustrate the public’s growing frustration  with BLM’s change of position on Oil Shale.  Specifically, Ms. Hall argues that BLM’s “agenda is to halt oil shale development in its tracks — regardless of the facts, the outcomes of any studies or the benefits of oil shale production.  Chris Treese of the Colorado River Water Conservation District, and Dr. Jeremy Boak, director of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research at the Colorado School of Mines, are noted experts in their field and are more qualified to speak on matters pertaining to the Colorado River and oil shale development than are the distinguished officials from Nevada and Arizona.