Record of Decision for Oil Shale and Tar Sands | The Wildlife ...

(Credit: Bureau of Land Management)

On April 1, 2013 the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) for the allocation of Oil Shale and Tar Sands resources on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) administered lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming was published in the Federal Register. The decision in the Final ROD amended ?10 land use plans making 679,000 acres of lands containing oil shale resources open for application for future leasing and development, and approximately 132,000 acres open for application for future leasing and development of tar sands.? This was an increase from the preferred alternative of 461,965 acres and 91,045 acres, respectively.

The protest period ended December 10, 2012. The BLM stated that it resolved all previous valid protest issues, corrected acreage with ?wildlife characteristics? identified in the draft PEIS in Wyoming, re-evaluated some lands designated as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, and refined management guidelines for greater sage-grouse habitat to reflect additional information provided by state fish and wildlife agencies. In a December 2012 letter, TWS and several sportsman, fishing, and wildlife groups supported the ?balanced? decision announced November 9, 2012, but urged Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to be cautious ?in the opening of federal public lands for commercial oil shale and tar sands development.? The letter went on to urge the Department of the Interior to base its commercial leasing decisions on sound science to ?protect clean air and water, conserve fish and wildlife, and sustain the economies that depend on those resources.?

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Sources: Federal Register (April 1, 2013); BLM (Nov. 9, 2012); BLM (Feb. 3, 2012); 2012 Oil Shale & Tar Sands Programmatic EIS, FAQs; ?The Wildlife Society Letter to Secretary Salazar (Dec. 10, 2012).

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For more information, visit: Bush Administration BLM Draft Plan for Oil Shale Development, Hearing Incites Heated Debate over Pace of Oil Shale Development.

Source: http://news.wildlife.org/featured/record-of-decision-for-oil-shale-and-tar-sands/

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