BLM releases oil shale study

Posted by egable on December 21st, 2007 filed in Energy development

The Bureau of Land Management yesterday released a draft environmental study to guide future management of public lands containing oil shale and tar sands. BLM is proposing to allocate nearly 2 million acres of public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for potential commercial oil shale development.

Oil shale deposits on public lands hold the equivalent of 1.23 trillion barrels of oil, and the lands BLM wants to make available to development hold at least 61 billion barrels — enough gas to fuel American tanks for 18 years.

Most U.S. oil shale resources are found in the Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The federally owned portion of this resource is more than 50 times the nation’s proven reserves of conventional oil and nearly five times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia, according to BLM.

The draft study found that commercial oil shale development could result in the conversion of farmland and open space to housing and shopping developments, increased traffic, degradation of regional air and water quality, decline of agricultural activities, reduction of property values and loss of thousands of recreation-related jobs.