Federal government to take a fresh look at oil shale development in the West

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...more