For Immediate Release
January 24, 2006

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CHEYENNE –  At a public hearing on proposed oil shale leasing held in Cheyenne last Friday, the Bureau of Land Management announced that an oil shale pilot project proposed by Anadarko Petroleum for the Kinney Rim area of the Red Desert had failed to make the grade for further consideration.

The Anadarko proposal was one of 20 Research and Development leasing proposals received for oil shale production, and the only one in Wyoming. If approved, the project would have authorized the leasing of approximately 1,000 acres of public lands within the Kinney Rim North citizens’ proposed wilderness, in addition to adjacent lands outside the roadless area.

Wyoming’s oil shale deposits contain a maximum of 30 gallons of oil per ton; by contrast, the richest deposits in Colorado contain only 60 gallons per ton. “Oil shale has always had a low probability of ever becoming a significant part of our nation’s energy resources,” said Erik Molvar, wildlife biologist with Biodiversity Conservation Alliance. “When you couple its low energy yield with the complete leveling of the land’s surface and the huge air pollution problems that go along with full-scale production, oil shale is a poor alternative to renewable energy resources and even conventional fossil fuels.”

Eight of the 20 projects will move forward for more detailed consideration, with interest centered on northwestern Colorado’s Piceance Basin.

“Due to the low-quality nature of Wyoming oil shale, this project would have likely caused needless damage to the sensitive landscapes at the north end of the Kinney Rim, without yielding enough oil to make extraction feasible,” said Molvar. “We’re pleased that this ill-conceived project has been abandoned, but we’ll continue to keep an eye on how oil shale extraction proceeds in Colorado.