Interior rejects oil shale lease offerings

February 25, 2009

Mark Jaffe, Denver Post
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Excerpts:

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today tossed out a Bush administration oil shale lease offering, saying it "didn't meet the smell test."

On Jan. 14, with less than a week in office, the Bush administration issued a solicitation for research and development oil shale leases in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

The 640-acre leases would have been four times as large as the first research leases issued in 2005. They also would have locked in a 5 percent royalty rate.