Oil Shale News

From: MENAFN

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, Nov 19, 2012 (Menafn – MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –As oil shale producer Red Leaf Resources moves from the technologydevelopment and R&D phase into full-scale production, it is pleasedto announce their hiring of a CEO with vast natural resourcedevelopment experience, Adolph Lechtenberger.

Lechtenberger has experience in all aspects of Red Leaf’s business.He has worked in surface mining, refining and marketing of petroleumproducts, and was the new technology manager for the Colony oil shaleproject in the 1980s. He has overseen the full life-cycle of energyproduction and has helped several companies through growth periodsthat require strong leadership. Lechtenberger succeeds Jim Patten,who was part of the founding team at RLR and will serve as VicePresident of Technology Development.

From:  U-T San Diego

Last December, Gov. Jerry Brown said a key reason to pursue very costly alternative energy was that America was running out of oil. During the presidential campaign, Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s declaration that he wanted North America to be energy independent by 2020 drew snickers in social media.

Now, thanks to the International Energy Association, maybe we can mothball this ignorance. As a new IEA report notes, the U.S. is on track to surpass Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer, thanks to improved methods of hydraulic fracturing – aka, fracking – that make it far easier to get to oil shale supplies.

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.