WSP05711

• File Number: 8040.200
• Description: Section D General Studies-Energy
• Date: 1/1/3000
• Author: DOI
• Title: Energy-Oil Shale-Final Environmental Statement on Proposed Prototype Oil Shale Leasing Program Announced
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: News Article/Press Release

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The Secretary noted that in the event the proposed prototype leasing pro-
gram was undertaken and development resulted, he would not consider any addi-
tional commercial scale leasing programs prior to evaluation of the environmental
effects from the prototype program itself, or similar environmental effects from
commercial scale development on private' lands.

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If a decision is made to proceed with a leasing program, a notice will be
published fixing the first competitive sale 30 days or more after the notice.
The lease sales would be held sequentially at l4-day intervals in appropriate
State offices of the Bureau of Land Management. The proposed order of the
lease sale would be Colorado (C-a, C-b): Utah (U-a, U-b); and Wyoming (W-a, W-b).

The proposed leasing contract provides for diligent development of the leased
resources with stringent provisions for the protection of the environment. Prep-
aration and submission of a detailed development plan will require an exploration
and design period which would be expected to require at least three years for
completion. Those plans would be required to show the methods the lessee would
use to prevent or mitigate degradation of the environment.

The lease provides that prio~ to approval of a detailed development plan,
which must be submitted by the third anniversary date of each lease, the
Department of the Interior would hold public hearings on the plan for each tract
in the county of the tract's location. Members of a multi-agency Oil Shale
Technical Advisory Board would participate in the hearings. This Board would
be a continuing group to advise the Geological Survey Mining Supervisor and the
Bureau of Land Management District Manager;"should the program be implemented.
The Board would be comprised of personnel selected from appropriate Interior
Bureaus and other Federal Agencies. Observers from the State, local, and private
sectors would participate and present their views to the Board.

The Final Environmental Statement pointed out that the basic techniques of
producing oil from oil shale have been proven on a 1,000 barrels per day pilot
plant scale using underground mining and surface processing to extract oil from
shsle.

The prototype leasing program envisages that construction and operation
of the first commercial scale plants (at least 50,000 barrels per day), would
require capital investment of from $200 million to $250 million. Several
experimental oil shale production methods have been developed.' All involve the
heating of 011 shale to more than 900 degrees Fahrenheit to convert the contained
kerogen (an organic material) to shale oil, a synthetic crude oil that can be
refined further into most conventional petroleum products.

The prospect of private development and the related environmental effects
has been discussed in the Final Environmental Statement. Operations on private
lands are not supervised by the Department, but any significant operations on
private lands would require some type of permit or access across public lands
for utilities and roads. Those permits or access rights would contain the appro-
priate off-site environmental stipulations published in the Final Environmental
Statement, and 'operations on the private lands involving environmental considera-
tions would have to be approved by the Department. Permits or access rights may
be cancelled for non-compliance with either those terms or the approved plans on
private lands.

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