Feds take deliberate approach of oil shale leasing

DENVER — Concerns and conflict over the first round of federal oil shale leases in the Rockies have made the government more deliberate in the second round, a federal official said Friday.

Alan Gilbert, a senior adviser to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said during an oil shale forum that a team of federal and state representatives will review the applications from three companies for 160-acre parcels.

…Attempts to extract the oil stretch back a century, said Randy Udall, co-founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas USA. Developing oil shale isn’t worth the costs – economic and environmental – for the energy gained, he said.

“This has been the Colorado oil shale follies, a long-running play,” Udall said.

Washington Post