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

Nuclear planners train hazmat teams

With a briefing for hazardous materials teams from Carbon, Emery, Grand and Uintah counties last week, the proposed Blue Castle nuclear project took another step on the long road to groundbreaking. The power plant site is about five miles west-northwest of Green River in Emery County. Final approval by all federal, state and local agencies would give the go-ahead for a generating facility that would match or exceed the output of all the coal-fired power plants now operating in that county. Plans call for 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts of capacity at the site. In contrast, the three units at PacifiCorp's Hunter Plant and both units at the Huntington plant are about 400 megawatts each. Blue Castle Holdings, Inc., which is developing the site, has reported that it has already secured water rights for the plant. Sun Advocate

Public meetings set for eastern Utah gas project

Three public meetings are planned late this month to provide details on an expansive natural gas project that could tap nearly 1,500 proposed wells to supply fuel for more than 40 years. The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental impact study on Gasco Energy's Uinta Basin Natural Gas Development Project.

Located 20 miles south of Roosevelt, the proposed project area involves nearly 207,000 acres, with a little more than 7,500 acres that would be directly disrupted. As envisioned under the federal agency's preferred proposal by Gasco, the project 100 wells drilled per year, with 1,491 drills done by approximately 2026. Deseret News