Oil Shale News

From: NBC11 News

GARFIELD COUNTY, Colo. (KKCO) – A lawsuit settlement forces the Garfield County Commissioners to retract a resolution that opposes the BLM’s proposal to limit public lands for oil shale development.

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) agreed to settle with the Western Colorado Congress, Paul Light and the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance, who sued the commissioners for attending a meeting in Vernal, Utah, on March 27, 2012. They say because all commissioners were present and the meeting was behind closed doors, it violated Colorado’s Open Meetings Law.

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — The Garfield Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by several citizens groups over a private meeting with oil shale industry representatives held in Vernal, Utah, last March.

From: UB Post

By Paul Sullivan,
Georgetown University

From: Sacramento Bee

JUNEAU, Alaska — Sen. Joe Paskvan is holding a town hall meeting in Fairbanks Thursday onNorth Slope shale oil potential.

Paskvan is co-chair of the Senate Resources Committee, but this won’t be a committee hearing. Paskvan plans to host the panel discussion and meeting.

The president of Great Bear Petroleum, vice chancellor of research at University of Alaska Fairbanks and director of the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center are scheduled to give presentations.

According to a news release, the presentations and discussion will focus on issues including the shale oil potential on the North Slope, what challenges associated with development can be expected and how Fairbanks can benefit as much as possible economically from any development.

By Stephanie M. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle

A nearly 18,000-acre stretch of land extending from California’s Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley is the setting for a brewing debate over an oil-extraction method that has little governmental oversight.

The land, which spans Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties, rests on a large chunk of the Monterey Shale, a formation of underground minerals long eyed by the energy industry for its potential to yield billions of barrels of oil.

From: The Denver Post

GRAND JUNCTION — A closed-door meeting in Utah in March prompted a lawsuit this week against the Garfield County Commissioners by a citizens’ group that alleges the county broke the law and ignored public input on oil shale development.

“They gave lobbyists special treatment and shut out the public,” said Leslie Robinson, president of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance.

The lawsuit, filed this week in Garfield County Court by the Alliance , alleges the commissioners violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law by meeting in an executive session March 27 in Vernal, Utah.

If there’s any public lands agency that’s unabashedly pro-energy development, it would have to be the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration. Maximizing profits for the benefit of schools is, after all, in its legal job description.

So it was with no illusions of quick change Thursday that Ryan Pleune appeared before SITLA’s board for the third and final time this year seeking an about-face on leasing oil shale and tar sands deposits to would-be energy developers.

From: KCPW News

08.10.2012 by Jeff Robinson

A closed-door meeting in late March of officials from several counties in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, along with lobbyists for the oil shale industry, has raised questions about the connections between the industry and public officials. And those connections have been investigated by groups like the Checks and Balances Project, which calls itself a government and industry watchdog. Matthew Garrington is co-director of the Checks and Balances Project. KCPW’s Jeff Robinson asked him about the details of this closed-door meeting and a report the group released.

From:  Oil & Gas Financial Journal

A net energy importer for the first time in almost 20 years, Argentina is looking to boost output, in part, by seeking foreign partners to help unlock what the country sees as its vast unconventional oil and gas resources.

A few large oil and gas companies including ExxonMobil, Apache, Total, EOG, and Chevron have already acquired large blocks prospective for shale oil and shale gas in the country, but with a recent shake up in management at YPF SA, the stage may be set for additional developments.