Finalization of oil shale regulations would imperil taxpayers, water supplies, wildlife, and global warming efforts The Department of the Interior is rushing to finalize regulations that would govern commercial leasing and development of oil shale, a sedimentary rock containing kerogen which, when heated to extreme temperatures, yields oil. Commercial development could pose serious threats to the global climate and the communities, water tables, energy infrastructure and environment of the West. One of the world's richest deposits of oil shale is found in the Green River Basin and harvesting it with current technologies would adversely impact nearly 2 million acres of public lands and thousands of residents in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Oil shale extraction depends on literally melting oil from rock-but technologies to do so efficiently, cost-effectively, and safely do not exist. The Bureau of Land Management currently oversees research and development on federal lands to address unanswered questions, and many companies continue to conduct research on the thousands of acres they own privately....