WASHINGTON — Congress should not delay Utah's oil shale industry from moving forward, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Sen. Orrin Hatch and former Utah Rep. Jim Hansen told a Senate panel Thursday.

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, the Utah officials focused on an untapped supply of oil just waiting to be put to use that could not only increase supply but reduce dependence on foreign oil. In their testimonies, they cited rising fuel prices as one of the reasons why Congress should encourage the development of the industry.

While Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and The Wilderness Society cautioned against issuing federal regulations before oil shale technology is fully developed, Hatch emphasized that he specifically gave the states the power to decide when or if they wanted to move ahead on developing their resources.

"If leaders in Colorado and Wyoming wish to slow down oil shale and sands productions in their states, then I congratulate them," Hatch said. "But is it not right to artificially slow shale development down in areas that are prepared to meet the challenges of supplying our nation with domestic oil."

The U.S. has more than 70 percent of the world's oil shale, with the richest deposits in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming estimated to contain 1.5 trillion barrels of shale oil, said Hansen, who testified on behalf of Farmington-based Oil Shale Exploration Co. (OSEC). The company has a BLM oil shale research and development lease on 160 acres of land in Uintah County.

"If only 800 billion of this can be recovered, that alone would supply all of our current domestic petroleum needs for the next 100 years or more," Hansen said. He called the three Western states the "Saudi Arabia of oil shale."

Congress included Hatch's Oil Shale and Tar Sands Development Act in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The law calls for the Interior Department to complete an environmental evaluation of oil shale development as well as commercial leasing regulation for the resource on public lands. But last year, Congress passed a law that prohibits BLM from spending any money to finish the final regulations, which were supposed to be issued later this year.

This irritates Hatch, who points out that language he put into the final law requires that the Interior secretary consult with the states' governors to determine the "level of support and interest" in oil shale or tar sand development.