DENVER — Federal officials are releasing a final plan for opening nearly 2 million acres of public land in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado to commercial oil shale development.
The Bureau of Land Management finalized the plan on Thursday, a month later than planned to give the public more time to comment. The agency planned to post the document online Friday.
The potential of the region's vast oil shale reserves is getting close attention as the debate over increasing domestic energy production heats up.
The shale is thought to contain 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The technology to squeeze the oil out of the rock is still experimental and commercial production is likely at least a decade off.
Some officials in Wyoming and Colorado have questioned the push to approve plans and leasing regulations considering that development isn't imminent.
"The administration is putting the cart in front of the horse by trying to sell these leases prematurely," Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said in a written statement.
The BLM itself has said it could be several years before it's clear if commercial oil shale development is possible, Salazar said. The agency has also said it's unsure how much water and power oil shale production would require, he added.
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter accused the Bush administration of "last-minute maneuvering in its waning days" rather than acting responsibly.
The federal government in July issued draft rules for commercial leasing that included a range of royalty rates. A congressional moratorium on issuing final regulations expires at the end of September.
Salazar sponsored the moratorium and is proposing to extend it.
BLM spokesman Matt Spangler said the plan says where oil shale could be leased. "We have to identify lands where we're going to do it," he said.
The BLM said it clarified parts of the final programmatic environmental impact statement based on more than 105,000 comments from the public, but didn't make significant changes.
A programmatic analysis takes a broader scope than a typical review. BLM officials have said more in-depth analyses will be done as specific projects are proposed.
Colorado officials, communities and conservationists say too much is unknown, including how or if oil shale can be produced commercially, to finalize a plan or leasing regulations.
