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For Immediate Release Wednesday, September 24, 2008 |
CONTACTS:
Matt Lee-Ashley (Sen. Salazar) 202-228-5905 |
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Sen. Salazar, Cong. Salazar, Cong. Udall: "Bush Administration Runs Roughshod over Colorado on Oil Shale" The following is the joint statement of Sen. Salazar, Cong. Salazar, and Cong. Udall. “The White House is evidently willing to go to all extremes to trample on the will of Western communities. They were threatening to shut down the entire federal government – at a moment when our economy is in crisis – over two issues: offshore drilling and oil shale development. We support the responsible development of our oil and gas resources at home – Colorado alone is home to more than 34,000 gas wells - and we support comprehensive energy solutions that include the expansion of offshore development. However, it is clear that the Bush Administration is clueless about the realities of oil shale development. By rushing ahead toward commercial leasing, they are putting at risk the very objective we hope to achieve - responsible oil shale development - by heightening the chance of another devastating bust. The White House’s approach is foolhardy and their ‘my way or the highway’ tactics deplorable. “We have fought hard to extend the current funding limitation, which prevents the issuance of commercial oil shale leases, because we need to continue with an orderly process that allows necessary research and development to be completed first. Our first choice for the coming year was to extend that moratorium and continue to protect the R&D programs we helped create. We were open to a second alternative, proposed by Congressman Matheson, that would allow states to opt in to commercial oil shale leasing. This would have allowed the State of Colorado to determine the future of oil shale development within its borders. Neither of these options was sufficient for a White House that, in its waning days in office, is hell bent on running roughshod over Colorado and the West. “When Congress reconvenes
in January, we will fight to restore an orderly process for oil shale
development so that Colorado’s land, water, and communities are protected.
We continue to believe that Western wisdom, gained from our century
of work to develop oil shale, offers a far better chance of getting
us to our goal of responsible commercial oil shale development than
the eleventh hour schemes of an outgoing Administration.”
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