WASHINGTON (June 26, 2008) — Statement by Chase Huntley, energy policy advisor for The Wilderness Society, on Title II of the Gas Price Reduction Act Of 2008:

“Today, the proponents of oil shale development perpetrated a cruel fiction on the American people, promising a false solution to high gasoline prices that instead would hand over potentially tens of thousands of acres of federal lands to oil shale speculators. This bill falsely promises that oil shale will lower gasoline prices, when in fact the industry is years if not decades away from proving the economic viability, technical feasibility, and environmental safety of the technologies needed to squeeze oil from rock.

“In light of these knowledge gaps, Congress voted last year to include a limitation on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) implementation of a commercial oil shale leasing program. This policy supports a robust oil shale research and development program on federal lands managed by the BLM. Furthermore, millions of acres of oil shale deposits are already owned by private companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, the Oil Shale Exploration Company, Red Leaf Resources and Anadarko—yet none of these companies has ever developed a viable oil shale program.

“Clearly, today’s bill puts the cart before the horse. These companies have access to all the lands they need to develop a viable process to harvest oil from oil shale. We should not put thousands of residents in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming at risk of economic and environmental catastrophe by starting a commercial oil shale process that could consume the region’s water and energy resources and pollute the natural environment. Pushing the BLM to finalize rules governing commercial leasing and production of oil shale now is irresponsible—the technology to develop oil shale is not ready and its impacts to the environment and communities are not understood.”