The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has 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 part of the nation. With gas prices averaging over four-dollars and energy prices rising - Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne says we should be doing more to develop energy at home. And oil shale - according to BLM Director James Caswell - is a strategically important domestic resource that should be developed to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign sources of oil.

According to the Interior Department - the proposed regulations would provide a thoughtful, phased approach to oil shale development on public lands - though commercial development would not begin until it’s technologically viable - which is not expected for several years. The regulations also incorporate provisions of the Energy Policy Act and the Mineral Leasing Act - and require site-specific National Environmental Policy Act analysis before leases are issued.

The U.S. Geological Survey says the U.S. is home to more than half of the world’s oil shale resources. The largest known deposits are located in a 16-thousand square mile area in the Green River formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The proposed regulations are one of several steps designed to tap into the potential of these energy resources. Research, development and demonstration leases for oil shale projects in Colorado and Utah have also been issued.