from the Denver Post
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard has joined other Republican members of Congress in pushing for more domestic energy production by removing barriers to oil shale leasing in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.

A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would repeal a one-year moratorium on approval of final regulations for commercial oil shale leases on federal land. It would also allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Colorado's other senator, Democrat Ken Salazar, pushed the one-year ban that prevents the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from using federal funds to draft final regulations for commercial leases.

Allard voted year against the $555 billion spending bill that included the ban last year.

"U.S. oil shale resources alone exceed 2 trillion barrels of potential supply," Allard said in a written statement. "We in Congress should not be preventing this kind of progress."

Oil shale underlying western Colorado, parts of Utah and southwest Wyoming is thought to contain 1 trillion to 1.8 trillion barrels, or three times the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. Of that, roughly 800 billion barrels are considered recoverable.

The trick is extracting the oil from the rock, something that's been tried on and off for nearly a century. The shale, or kerogen, is a precursor that wasn't buried deeply enough or naturally processed long enough to complete the transformation to oil.

Full Story: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WY_OIL_SHALE
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