Oil Shale News

From: The Daily Sentinel

Two oil shale research-and-development proposals in Colorado have moved a step forward with today’s release of a draft environmental review of them.

The Bureau of Land Management released a preliminary environmental assessment of proposals by ExxonMobil Exploration Co. and Natural Soda Holdings Inc. for research, development and demonstration leases in Rio Blanco County.

“It’s the next step in our evaluation of whether or not we issue these leases,” said BLM spokesman David Boyd.

From: The New American

A stretch of largely vacant federal lands in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado may hold more recoverable oil than all the rest of the world put together. That is what Anu Mittal, Director of Natural Resources for the General Accounting Office, informed the House Science Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment in her written testimony on May 10:

The Green River Formation — an assemblage of over 1,000 feet of sedimentary rocks that lie beneath parts of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming — contains the world’s largest deposits of oil shale. USGS [U.S. Geological Survey] 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.

From: Denver Post

When I look through my faded, fraying family albums and look at the generations of mamas, papas, brothers and sisters who have made a life for themselves in the West, I often imagine the difficulties and challenges they have confronted.

I have often wondered how, for hundreds of years, our ancestors were able to overcome those obstacles, sustain our families and provide for children.

It is then I realize that what helped my ancestors survive and establish a proud heritage here in the West is the exact same precious resource that sustains my family and the lives of millions across the West today: Colorado River water that cuts across vast swaths of our the West.

From: The Republic

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Gov. Matt Mead has told the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that he disagrees with the agency’s proposal to reduce the amount of land in the state available to possible oil shale research and demonstration projects by placing sage grouse areas as well as potential wilderness lands and areas of critical environmental concern off-limits.

The BLM proposes to cut the acreage available for the oil shale projects and research from 2 million acres approved by the Bush administration in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah down to about 460,000 acres, of which nearly 175,000 are in Wyoming. The agency is working on a draft environmental study and intends to make leasing decisions by this fall.

From: CBS News

SALT LAKE CITY — The federal government is closing a public comment period on plans for oil shale development that have sharply cut public lands available for research and development projects.

The Bureau of Land Management has tentatively decided to lease about 460,000 acres of oil shale deposits for research and demonstration projects, down from 2 million acres the Bush administration planned to offer across Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

Oil-friendly interests are complaining that the BLM is making little land available with too many regulations. The new plans calls for opening another 91,000 acres for tar sands development, down from 431,000 acres the Bush administration planned to offer.

From: Post Independent

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A Colorado public watchdog group has filed an open records request with Garfield County and several other counties across three states that took part in a closed-door meeting in Utah in late March to discuss federal lands oil shale policy.

“Our local county commissioners shouldn’t be traveling across state lines to meet in secret with industry lobbyists and attorneys,” Elena Nunez, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday.