Editors Note: The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) released its comments that it submitted to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on BLM’s Oil Shale PEIS. BLM has not provided the public with access to the public comments on oil shale. Accordingly, the CRE will be utilizing its Oil Shale IPD to provide the public with access to the public comments it obtains. The CRE also encourages the public to utilize the Oil Shale IPD to publish comments that have been submitted to BLM. The Oil Shale IPD will provide the transparency to the Oil Shale PEIS process that BLM has been denying the public.
IECAC comments are summarized below:
“As a result of the settlement by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in regards to lawsuits
brought against the 2008 Oil Shale and Tar Sand Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
(PEIS) and Commercial Oil Shale Leasing Regulations (Regulations), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has solicited comments on a new draft PEIS. The Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA) urges BLM to reaffirm the 2008 PEIS and supports Alternative 1, Oil Shale No Action Alternative in the new draft PEIS.
Commercial oil shale and tar sands leasing programs are in the best interest of the nation in helping to meet the country’s energy needs. Premature and precautionary removal of access to the vast majority of land with this resource potential will put the viability of continued research and development at risk by making commerciality of development far less likely. The proposed removal of 90 percent of lands in Colorado and three-quarters of currently available land in the three-state area will discourage continued Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) expenditure by drastically shrinking the size of, and introducing major uncertainty for, potential resource recovery.”
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