WASHINGTON (April 21, 2008) — As the 30-day extended comment period ends on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) oil shale and tar sands development plan for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, thousands of local residents and more than two million acres of wild public lands could be endangered by the Bush Administration’s relentless push to open places such as western Colorado’s Piceance Basin and Utah’s San Rafael Swell to development. These lands and communities can be expected to experience fouled water, disrupted wildlife, polluted air and damaged habitat if the BLM moves forward with a commercial leasing plan, according to supplemental comments submitted today by a diverse coalition of conservationists, citizens, and recreation enthusiasts.

“On the eve of Earth Day, the BLM continues to put the cart before the horse on oil shale and tar sands development,” said Chase Huntley, energy policy advisor for The Wilderness Society. “This plan is long on assumptions and short on facts.  The agency is overseeing a research and development program to fill in these blanks.  A move toward commercial leasing could lead to the imprudent transfer of millions of acres of public lands to international oil companies and oil shale speculators.”

Oil shale is a rock that yields an oil-like substance when heated to extreme temperatures, and tar sands contain extremely heavy oil mixed with sand and clay.  While tar sands are present only in Utah, oil shale is present in all three states.

“As Draft PEIS documents, there is no knowledge or experience to determine how commercial production would be undertaken in the United States,” the supplemental comments read. “Best available data and contact with companies awarded federal research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) leases was not sufficient to enable the agency to determine what future commercial development will be like….[T]he BLM was unable to provide specifics on the location, practices, or pace with which commercial oil shale and tar sands production will be undertaken.”

New technologies for the safe commercial exploration of oil shale are at least a decade away, according to industry experts and independent observers like the RAND Corporation. Despite the need for additional years of research, the Bush Administration’s BLM is rushing before it leaves office to complete public comment on a draft environmental impact statement that could pave the way for commercial–scale leasing. The BLM is taking this step even while it manages a research and development program on federal lands meant to better understand the significant technological obstacles posed by the commercial development of oil shale and tar sands.

“In extending the comment period, the BLM recognized they were moving too fast to ensure that all affected communities were able to digest the profound consequences that an oil shale and tar sands leasing program will have for local economies and the environment,” said David Alberswerth, TWS’s senior energy policy advisor. “Unfortunately, oil shale development in its current form would have devastating impacts on the land and the people who live nearby.  Nothing has changed except that this backward plan may now go forward on the eve of Earth Day.”

If oil shale leasing were to begin today, some of the likely future impacts would include:

1. Surface mining of oil shale “would result in the permanent loss or severe degradation of nearly 50 percent of BLM stream fisheries” in the affected area, according to a 1996 study. Furthermore, transforming oil shale into oil leaves behind salts and numerous toxic, water-soluble chemicals that could leach into the groundwater that is becoming an increasingly important source of drinking water as climate change dries the West.
2. To support the million-barrel-per-day industry forecast draft environmental impact statement, 10 giant new power plants and five large new coal mines will be required that could emit 105 million tons of carbon dioxide every year—or 80% more than was released by all existing electric utility generating units in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming in 2005.  Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions, the major culprits in acid rain, could increase by over 35,000 tons per year each.
3. BLM has estimated that large-scale oil shale development would result in the permanent loss of 35 percent of Colorado River cutthroat trout fisheries. Oil shale would also adversely impact Colorado’s largest elk herd by severing migration corridors and destroying the winter range of all big game species. Other impacts to all wildlife include habitat loss, alteration or fragmentation, disruption through lights and noise, and increased toxicity levels from herbicides, hydrocarbons or other contaminants.
4. Tar sands mining usually utilizes strip mining or open pit techniques, completely ruining the environment during production and possibly permanently destroying the wildlife and landscapes that are impacted.