Groups flay BLM over oil shale

Four environmental groups this week accused the Bureau of Land Management of skipping a step on its way to amending land-management plans that they say will "expedite" commercial development of oil shale in the Green River Basin.

The Wilderness Society, Western Resource Advocates, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity sent a letter Monday to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. In the letter, they claimed the BLM bypassed a public protest period when the federal agency decided to amend 12 land management plans impacting 2.5 million acres of public lands in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The BLM also denied the governors of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah the opportunity to conduct formal consistency reviews with the policies and programs of their state, "affecting air, water and wildlife," The Wilderness Society said in a news release Tuesday.

The Green River formation spanning the three states is estimated to contain about 800 billion recoverable barrels of oil currently locked in shale deposits. In Utah, the BLM lands with oil-shale deposits include the Book Cliffs, Diamond Mountain, Price River Resource Area, Henry Mountain, San Rafael Resource Area and San Juan Resource Area.

The environmental groups claim the BLM's actions violated the Federal Land Policy Management Act and were inconsistent with the National Environmental Policy Act. The groups asked Kempthorne to oblige the BLM to allow for an "adequate review of the local consequences" and to withdraw its 12 land management amendments until it has "fully complied with applicable laws."

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