BLM holding hearings on oil shale development

By The AP
Monday, April 25, 2011

DENVER — The Bureau of Land Management plans a series of hearings in the West on the impacts of oil shale development.

The hearings begin Tuesday in Utah after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided to take a fresh look at a federal oil shale plan that was released in 2008 by the Bush administration.

That plan would open 2 million acres of Western public lands to oil shale research and development. The potential impacts include water pollution, huge power needs and boom-bust economic risks.

Hearings are planned in Colorado on May 3 in Rifle and May 4 in Denver.