The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness recently submitted a Protest to BLM on its Final Oil Shale PEIS.
BLM’s decision to revise oil shale decisions made in 2008 could have enormous impacts on domestic energy production. Specifically, The Government Accountability Office states, “The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the Green River Formation contains about 3 trillion barrels of oil, and about half of this may be recoverable, depending on available technology and economic conditions. This is an amount about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.”[1] Nevertheless, BLM is now planning to reduce the amount of federal land available for oil shale development by 75%, with a 90% reduction in Colorado. BLM is seeking to effectively eliminate oil shale development in the United States without offering any compelling basis, except for a lawsuit[2] challenging BLM’s initial 2008 oil shale determinations.[3]