Oil Shale

Oil Shale is a sedimentary rock, and when heated to extreme temperatures, can be converted into liquid petroleum. The Bureau of Land Management's draft plan on commercial oil shale development lays the groundwork to destroy the landscape in western Colorado for decades to come.  The plan lays the groundwork for a commercial-scale oil shale industry that would dwarf the oil shale boom experienced 30 years ago. But while the federal government is pushing a plan to lease immense acreage in western Colorado, energy industry leaders are saying that successful commercial-scale oil shale development is at least 11-15 years out - if it's even feasible at all.

The plan proposes that industrial oil shale production will monopolize nearly 320,000 acres of public land and more than 40,000 acres of split-estate (private) lands spread out within the Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and White River BLM resource areas in Colorado. Some of the areas identified are smack in the middle of our most precious hunting, fishing and recreational habitat. Proposed extraction methods would entail 100-percent surface disturbance.