Baardson said those environmental effects could be mitigated. No water is used in heating shale over 900 degrees to extract oil, and the process actually produces water. Once the oil is extracted, the byproduct could be used to fill in old mine pits or sent to coal-fired power plants to be used in a process that would reduce sulfur emissions, he said. The resulting coal ash could then be used in cement mix or as a gravel substitute, Baardson added.

But it's the difference between $70 a barrel — the current price of imported oil — and $40 a barrel for shale oil that has Domenici excited.

"I'm very optimistic," Domenici said in an interview. "There are people with a passion who want to get something like this done."

The Bureau of Land Management picked Oil Shale Exploration Co. as the sole applicant being considered for a research and development lease at the White River Mine site in Uintah County, which was visited Thursday by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Hatch did not meet with press during or after his trip to the mine, located about 10 miles from Oil Tech's research site.

Two areas within the White River Mine site are said to hold more than 661 million barrels of oil within shale deposits, according to BLM geologist Pete Sokolosky.

In two to three years, at least six companies could produce oil from shale in Utah and actually have an impact on the price of gasoline at the pump, Baardson said. But before any large-scale mining and processing take place in Utah, companies will need to go through an environmental-assessment process and a public comment period.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com