Oil shale PEIS meeting today

MEEKER — The Bureau of Land Management will host an open house public meeting Feb. 14 in Meeker to offer information about the Draft Resource Management Plan Amendments and Program-matic Environmental Impact Statement (Draft PEIS) for oil shale and tar sands resources in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
The Draft PEIS was published on Dec. 21, 2007, and is open for public comment through March 20, 2008.
The Meeker open house will be Feb. 14 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Mountain Valley Bank, 400 Main St. An open house in Rifle was held Feb. 13.
Specialists in various topics addressed in the Draft PEIS will staff information stations arranged around the meeting room, offering those attending the open house an opportunity to ask questions about the document and the planning process.
Computer terminals will be available at the open house for submitting written comments through the PEIS project Web site http://ostseis.anl.gov. There will be no means to submit or record oral comments at the meeting. Written comments may be submitted at any time through March 20 through the Web site or by mail to: BLM Oil Shale and Tar Sands PEIS, Argonne National Laboratory EVS/900, 9700 S. Cass Ave., Argonne, Ill., 60439.
The BLM is developing the PEIS pursuant to direction in Section 369(d) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The act declares oil shale and other unconventional fuels to be strategically important domestic energy sources that should be developed “to reduce the nation’s growing dependence on imported oil.” Most U.S. oil shale resources are found in the Green River Formation of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The federally owned portion of this resource is more than 50 times the country’s proven conventional oil reserves and nearly five times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia.
The complete Draft PEIS is available in electronic form (PDF) on the project Web site, http://ostseis.anl.gov. Paper and CD-ROM copies of the Draft are also available at the BLM State Offices in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming; and BLM Field Offices in Vernal, Price, Richfield and Monticello, Utah; Meeker, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction, Colo.; and Kemmerer, Rawlins and Rock Springs, Wyo.