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Show Interior cuicay cask or industry interest In oil shalle leasing BvHeleneC.Monberg . hineton--The Interior Depart-'SS Depart-'SS on the oU shale industry ie "'This month for expressions of !!ef f in special technology, Jeff 0 If Interior's oil shale task force a weekend interview. The ,rcewas established on June 17 to for oil shale leasing. . haven't made a final decision on , w but we are considering asking t trv for its expressions of interest Sal technology" for which oil ' Kactsmay be leased, he stated, e are thinking about doing it later js month." nil from shale can be recovered m Wal ways, including retorting on 1 or the in situ method, modified in f ' urface and underground mining n'later processing. Interior wants to L what special technologies m- L would like to pursue prior to L a call for nominations of oil le lands to be put up for lease. Such a call for industry interest in Ichnology will have to te done soon Luse the task force is tentatively Ling to call for nominations of Jderal tracts to be leased in January, 'abler stated. 'interior hopes to finish a number of hidies on oil shale leasing by Oct. 1. On M date they are to be presented to Inder Secretary James A. Joseph, who jjll determine when and if Interior will (sume its oil shale test leasing jogram. fabler said meetings will be held on ie criteria to be used for tract selec- im in the West soon, in Salt Lake City, ug. 25, and in Denver, on Aug. 28. This : a necessary preliminary to making a : jiineation of the tracts to be leased and a preparation of an enviornmental impact statement on the leasing program. Interior is looking at two leasing programs, a resumption of the prototype program under which four federal leases were sold in 1974, two each in Colorado and Utah; and a permanent program for oil shale leasing which might occur in the 1982-1983 1982-1983 time period. For a variety of reasons, there has never been a permanent oil shale leasing program in this country since oil shale became a leasable mineral in . 1920 under the Mineral Leasing Act. Zabler underscored a couple of points in the interview, which clearly was based on the expectation that Interior will get on with oil shale leasing, although this decision has not been made yet, officially. He said Interior would continue to seek public participation in what stipulations local areas want in leases. These stipulations could, of course, bind the industry to do certain things primarily to lessen the impacts of oil shale development on local communities. com-munities. If the stipulations were onerous, they would undoubtedly affect the interest of industry in leasing and the amount of the bids. A meeting of the group working on lease terms, conditions, procedures and stipulations will be held in Salt Lake City on Aug. 18. Interior is thinking of notifying all government agencies of its activities in oil shale concerning both prototype and long-term leasing. Among the agencies which would be most helpful in getting their programs to dovetail with Interior's In-terior's oil shale leasing plans are the Departments of Housing and Urban Affairs, Education, and Health and Human Resources, and the Farmers Home Administration in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Zabler said. "We don't have the authority by law to become a coordinating agency and we don't have the personnel to carry out such a program, but we can and should let the other government departments know what we are planning," Zabler stated. He noted energy impact aid at the present time is limited to a small program in coal and uranium developments, and that the program does not cover oil shale. Interior has some authority to extend ex-tend impact aid to affected communities com-munities under the 1976 Organic Act for the Bureau of Land Management, but it has never been implemented, Zabler observed. Careful coordination of leasing terms could help mitigate local problems, according to Zabler. He gave as an example a provision in Interior's proposals on oil shale legislation which would allow a company to get an additional ad-ditional lease when it had only 10 years left on its initial oil shale lease. "The big advantage to that provision is that it would avoid the boom-bust cycle, and it would allow a company to keep a permanent labor force. It wouldn't have to shift it all over the place," he said. Reps. Gunn McKay, D-Utah, D-Utah, and Dan Marriott, R-Utah, have introduced this legislation in Congress as HR 6882. No action has been taken on it as yet, however. It contains other legislative changes sought by Interior, including larger lease tracts, and permitting the leasing of additional land for siting oil shale facilities and for disposal of spent shale. |