Posted on 02/25/2009 6:48:50 PM PST by thackney
The US Department of the Interior will offer a second round of research, development, and demonstration leases for oil shale in Colorado and Utah and withdraw the Bush administration's proposal for expanded RD&D leases, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.
"We need to push forward aggressively with research, development and demonstration of oil shale technologies to see if we can find a safe and economically viable way to unlock these resources on a commercial scale," Salazar said. "The research, development, and demonstration leases we will offer can help answer critical questions about oil shale, including about the viability of emerging technologies on a commercial scale, how much water and power would be required, and what impact commercial development would have on land, water, wildlife, and communities."
Interior has submitted a notice to appear in the Federal Register on Friday to ask stakeholders for comments on the lease round. That comment period will be open for 90 days, with a solicitation for the leases to follow.
A previous round of research and development leasing led to six leases in Colorado and Utah.
"This will help us restore order to a process that, under the previous administration, was turned upside down," Salazar said. "We look forward to hearing from the public, industry, and local communities as we move toward offering a second round of research, development, and demonstration leases."
In mid-January the Bush administration's Interior Department announced that it was expanding research and development leases in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, and it finalized rules that laid out how research and development oil-shale leases could be converted to commercial leases.
BUSH LEASES DAYS BEFORE TERM END
BLM estimates that oil shale in western states could hold the equivalent of 800 billion barrels of oil, and proponents have touted the area as the "Saudi Arabia of oil shale." But oil shale extraction has attracted criticism for the massive water-use demands and carbon dioxide emissions that come with its development.
Salazar said he was withdrawing the Bush administration's solicitation on RD&D leases because it included "several flaws, including locking in low royalty rates that would shortchange taxpayers."
The Bush administration offered its oil shale leases just days before leaving office, made the parcels four times the size of the current six RD&D leases, and then locked in low royalty rates and a premature regulatory framework for those leases, Salazar said.
"If oil shale technology proves to be viable on a commercial scale, taxpayers should get a fair rate of return from their resource," Salazar said.
Until results come back from the research and development leases, and the costs and impacts of oil shale use is better understood, Salazar said it was premature to speculate on what royalty rates for commercial leasing would be appropriate.
Salazar said that the department was still reviewing its options regarding commercial oil shale leasing, but that it was important to go forward with research and development leasing.
Before President Bush left office in January, Interior's Bureau of Land Management finalized separate regulations that would govern commercial oil shale leasing on public lands and issued a revised plan opening almost 2 million acres in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to that leasing.
Of course. Continue to deny Americans access to their own energy reserves. Makes perfect ‘Rat sense.
No need for it, windmills and human flatulence will light the world. Just ask Nazi Pelosi.
I love your post.
Sounds like it’s going to be a real stinky world; doesn’t it. Just don’t put me downwind.
10th AMENDMENT!!!
Yeah, maybe Bush pushed this through in his final days, after being bottled up for seven+ years, but Zer0 has got to recognize that wind turbines,and solar (totally forget about nuclear) will double from 2% to 4% of the power supply!
What a total bunch of idiots, morons, yes-even assholes. But meanwhile Gore tels us that the sea is going to rise by 5 feet!
We must be in the end times, the final times of the earth.
Keep your powder dry!
Can’t use flatulence, because it leaves too big of a carbon imprint...get your energy use down to the 4% level (on windy days...)
I guess the dimocrats want the American people to pay higher prices for gas.
Go figure?
So, when Bush opens up the oil shale, it’s Bush who did it. When Obama blocks access to the oil shale, it’s the U.S. that did it.
The bleeding heart libs will just bring out the tired argument that it would take 10 years to have new production/supply... well if we start exploring/extracting now we'll be ready to partially break the chains of the Middle East by tapping our own supply instead of being the Middle East's beeeotch... over and over.
Salazar Slitherin?
Pick up your weapon and follow me.
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