A new federal study on the environmental impact of oil shale and tar sands development in the West is being launched, the Bureau of Land Management announced today.
The new environmental impact statement follows the Obama administrations freezing of oil shale activities that were approved by the Bush administration in its waning days.
In January 2009, just weeks after taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar targeted rules for commercial oil shale development for review.
“Moving forward with commercial regulations for oil-shale development is premature,” Salazar said at the time. “We are going to take a look at all the midnight actions of the Bush administration and see what needs to be changed and which are OK.”
In February 2009, Salazar halted a last-minute oil-shale lease offering set-up by the Bush administration, saying it “didn’t meet the smell test” and he called for a top-to-bottom review of the oil-shale program.
In 2008, the BLM published a programmatic impact statement that expanded the acreage potentially available for commercial tar-sands leasing.
It also amended resource management plans in in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming to make about 1.9 million acres of public lands available for commercial oil shale development and 431,224 acres for tar sands leasing and development.
The new study will replace that Bush administration plan.
“Final land-use decisions will be made in light of any new information about potential resource needs and impacts, and technological innovations,” the BLM said in a statement.
The BLM, which oversees the shale program, estimates there is the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil on approximately 2 million acres of land in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.
“The BLM remains committed to a thoughtful, orderly, and responsible oil shale development program,” BLM Director Bob Abbey said in statement. “Public involvement is a vital component in this process.”
Public scoping meetings, to determine what issues the new study should address, will be held in May 3 in Rifle, at Colorado Mountain College, and on May 4 in Denver at the Denver West Marriot.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or MJaffe@denverpost.com