BLM proposes new oil shale research in eastern Utah

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposes a second lease in Utah to test oil shale mining technologies, the agency announced. An Interior Department review team, which received state input, recommended the BLM consider three new leases, BLM spokesman Vince Vogt said. Two are on Colorado’s West Slope and one is in eastern Utah’s Uintah County, south of the White River and near the Colorado line. Once the BLM’s Utah office conducts an environmental study to determine if a lease there makes sense, a Chinese-backed company called AuraSource Inc. plans to test its process for crushing and cooking kerogen-laced rock into oil. Salt Lake Tribune