WASHINGTON D.C. — The Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management announced today the administration’s plan to offer up 807,000 acres of land for oil shale and tar sands leasing in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. According to some reports, this decision mirrors the draft released by these agencies in February and excludes many areas for leasing. In response to this decision, IER Senior Vice President Dan Kish released the following statement highlighting the false rhetoric and restrictive land management policies of the Obama administration:
“Once again, the president’s rhetoric on domestic energy development is light years away from the real-world regulations his administration implements. Today’s announced plan by the Bureau of Land Management will greatly limit oil shale development in Western states. The President wasted not time between a celebration in Chicago on Tuesday night and a return to business as usual back in Washington. Rather than opening up domestic resources that would free us from foreign oil, the Obama second-term energy agenda returns to the same restrictive policies that have increased our oil dependence on the Persian Gulf, raised the price of gasoline, and favored renewables at greater cost to taxpayers and consumers.”
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