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Show ! j Ifldustfry ft be given iimpuft 0n tfuftusre ii sheile leases (Soecial to the Vernal Express) , ByHeleneCMonberf? V ffashington-The Interior Depart-!f3 Depart-!f3 put in the Federal Register Sg the coming week a call for ex -Sns of interest by industry of oil S technologies that it would like to on and where it would like to do Jo Industry will be given 60 days to -espond. Industry will be asked to designate area in a towaship or larger-5760 " 'Vresor more-where it would like to rrt on a specific technology under the Prototype leasing program," Jeff Ller of Interior's oil shale task force I ' Adhere in an interview on Aug. 15. He " staff assistant to Assistant Interior tcretary Guy R. Martin who has been wed with resuming the oil shale . . -jtjtvpe leasing program on public U begun during the Nixon Ad- Lstration in 1974. The task force was Established on June 17 to gear up for 'e''-ttli prototype leasing and long-term Lsjng of oil shale lands in the Werally-owned Green River Formation For-mation in Colorado, Utah and homing. IZabier stressed that industry is not Ljngasked for nominations of oil shale " tacts at this time; it is only asked for jeas of interest to pursue new ecologies. "We are going to ask dustry for delineation of tracts on k. 15, and it will have 90 days to respond with specific tracts," that it wants considered for leasing, Zabler stated. Meanwhile, two new oil shale bills will be introduced during the next week. Chairman Morris K. Udall, D-Ariz., of the House Interior Committee and half dozen co-sponsors will introduce a clean bill amending the 1920 Mineral Leasing Act by giving the Secretary of Interior the authority to provide additional land to holders of prototype leases to use for building retorts and other buildings and to dispose of spent shale. The House Mining Subcommittee headed by Rep. James Santini, D-Nev., reported out this provision on July 31. It was decided to put it into a clean bill to give the legislation more clout when it goes to the House Interior Committee for action possibly as early as Aug. 20 or Aug. 27. Among the expected bill sponsors of the new bill will be Reps. David Marriott, R-Utah, and Gunn McKay, D-Utah, D-Utah, who co-sponsored the original bill marked up by the Mining Subcommittee Sub-committee on July 31, and Reps. Santini, Dick Cheney, R-Wyo., Ray Kogovsek, D-Colo., and possibly James P. Johnson, R-Colo. Meanwhile, on the Senate side Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, plans to introduce a bill with co-sponsorship which will repeal a provision in the 1976 BLM Organic Act prohibiting the Secretary of Interior to lease additional lands for spent shale disposal or for industrial plants, and giving him new authority to do so. The provision was written into the Organic Act in 1976 by Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., who has comr plained to Udall that the Santini Subcommittee Sub-committee did not hear environmental witnesses on providing additional lands for such purposes. A subcommittee spokesman said that the environmental groups were asked to testify but none responded. Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., may introduce in-troduce a companion bill in the Senate to the Udall bill in the House, but this was not determined for sure as of the end of last week. |