Senators to examine oil shale at hearing

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., will join Committee Chair Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in Grand Junction for a hearing and a tour of oil shale test facilities in Rio Blanco County.

The trip will allow the senators to check up on the progress of oil shale development – a process officials hope could yield nearly 800 billion barrels of oil – in the wake of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. It called for the establishment of a research and development leasing program and another separate commercial leasing program with a timeline for completion on the latter in two and a half years.

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