Posted on 08/07/2008 5:16:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations would provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. [Photo Credit: Argonne National Laboratory]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management today published proposed regulations to establish a commercial oil shale program that could result in the addition of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil from lands in the western United States.
In keeping with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the BLM is proposing regulations that would provide the critical “rules of the road” on which private investors will rely in determining whether to make future financial commitments to prospective oil shale projects.
“As Americans pay more than $4 for a gallon of gasoline and watch energy prices continue to climb higher and higher, we need to be doing more to develop our own energy here at home, through resources such as oil shale,” said Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne. “Instead, I find it ironic that we are asking countries halfway around the world to produce more for us.”
Oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing organic matter from which oil may be produced. The regulations would provide for a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands in the West. Commercial development of oil shale will not begin until it is technologically viable, which is not expected for several years.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is only publishing proposed regulations at this time because the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008 prohibits the agency from using FY2008 funds to prepare or publish final regulations. The President has called on Congress to remove the ban on finalizing oil shale program regulations.
Before any oil shale leases are issued, site-specific National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis would be completed on the proposed development. Once a lease is issued, the lessee will also have to obtain all required permits from state and local authorities, under their respective permitting processes, before any operations can begin.
The proposed leasing regulations incorporate provisions of the Energy Policy Act and the Mineral Leasing Act relating to: maximum oil shale lease size; maximum acreage limitations; rental; and lease diligence. The rule will also propose a range of royalty rate options, and will ask for public input on the royalty provisions. The public will have 60 days to comment on the proposed rules.
The regulations address provisions of the Energy Policy Act that establish work requirements and milestones to ensure diligent development of leases. Standard components of a BLM leasing program ─ including lease administration and operations ─ would be included, as well as additional NEPA documentation requirements for lease applicants.
In remarks last month calling on Congress to expand domestic energy production, President Bush noted the “extraordinary potential” of oil shale resources on public lands in the West. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. holds more than half of the world’s oil shale resources.
The largest known deposits of oil shale are located in a 16,000-square mile area in the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Shale formations in that area hold the equivalent of up to 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Federal lands comprise 72 percent of the total surface of oil shale acreage in the Green River formation.
“Oil shale is a strategically important domestic energy source that should be developed to reduce the nation’s growing dependence on oil from politically and economically unstable foreign sources,” said BLM Director James Caswell.
Throughout the process, the BLM will collaborate and consult with affected states, tribes and local governments to ensure that their interests and concerns surrounding the oil shale program continue to be addressed. For instance, the site-specific NEPA analyses would include the same opportunities for public involvement and comment that are part of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement process.
The regulations are just one of several steps designed to harness these vast energy resources. The BLM has also issued research, development and demonstration (RD&D) leases for five oil shale projects in Colorado’s Piceance Basin and one in Utah. The BLM is also preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that would amend several resource management plans to open lands for application for potential oil shale leasing in the future.
The Oil Shale Regulation on the electronic desk of the Federal Register today is at http://federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-16275_PI.pdf
NANCY, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW????????................
![](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:R8sR7daexSBGmM:www.ted-kyte.com/3D/Pictures/Spark%2520Plug.jpg";)
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....
All us professional Democrat oil driller/politicians know this for a FACT.
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4530946
Something you may want to read. There are studies showing this extraction method yields sub $28 a barrel cost.
Somewhere there are probably Democratic scientists that have been tasked with finding microbes that require the shale to exist, thus endangering them if we mine it.
Hey, it’s not any more far fetched than some of the crap coming out of their camp lately...
According to British Petroleum's Statistical Review of World Energy, in 2007 Saudi Arabia reported it had 264 billion barrels (42×109 m3) of estimated oil reserves, around 21% of the world's conventional oil reserves
We've got more than 3x as much as the Saudis, but we allow ourselves to be held hostage to the Middle East.
Someone is overlooking the Democrats in Colorado who have been passing statutes to stop oil shale development. This includes Senator Salazar and his Moratorium,
March 13, 2008.
“Today, the United States Senate voted down a Republican amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution that sought to override a one-year moratorium on oil shale development included in the omnibus appropriations bill late last year. The one-year moratorium is necessary to allow states and affected communities to work with the BLM to help restore order to the regulatory process, so that oil shale development can occur responsibly.”
Bakken oil, shale oil, its all the same but it can be extracted now. On page 3 in my website http://www.theusmat.com/I have posted a questionaire asking conservative candidates to include it in their surveys, and to get conservative local talk show to pose it on their shows.
The general public does not now how much oil we have “holed up” in our country thanks to MSM, that knowledge must get out.
Your help is needed
I thought you were going to say that environmentalists will keep the licensing tied up for a billion, trazillion years. );-)
I think we need some sort of permanent presence in Washington that pushes for energy development. The environmental lobby has too much say in what gets done in D.C.
bookmarking
800,000,000,000 barrells of oil?
That is enough for 40,000 years at current consumption of 20,000,000 barrells per day.
So...... what’s the crisis here?
For the Dems, THAT is a crisis!............Fuel and energy independence is to them like a cross and garlic necklace to a vampire!............
Days, not years
bump
Peg the price to some value below world oil prices and guarantee the oil companies $20 per barrel profit. The remaining mineral fee should be directed explicitly toward US debt and be forbidden from use toward current services. This may be more than a chance to be energy independent, it might also reflate the value of the American dollar.
Atsa nice ! What has that got to do with the subject at hand ? Getting the word out to the American people ?
Not 40,000 years but rather 40,000 days. It would be 109 years worth at current usage.
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