Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — A 79-year-old executive order barring oil-shale development in Wyoming and Utah is being lifted by the U.S. Interior Department.
In Federal Register notices scheduled for publication tomorrow, the Interior Departments Bureau of Land Management said it will open 6 million acres in Wyoming and 1.7 million in Utah to leasing, pending analysis to determine if the land warrants special protections. The plan would take effect next month.
Companies such as Exxon-Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp. are studying production through a process that involves heating rock to extract oil. Western states may hold as much as 800 billion barrels of oil, potentially enough to fuel the U.S. for a century. Environmental groups have opposed such oil-shale production, saying it destroys pristine lands and requires great quantities of energy and water.
This is really unorthodox in the sense that they are withdrawing 7 million acres of land without any public comment process, said Bobby McEnaney, a public-lands analyst at the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental organization. This is begging the new administration to take a second look at this.
Democratic Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, President-elect Barack Obamaschoice for Interior Secretary, has spoken out against the Bush administrations approach to oil-shale leasing, calling it hasty. Obama would have the power to reverse Interiors action, McEnaney said.
In 2001, Interior withdrew land in Colorado from the 1930 executive orders prohibition on leasing. The Federal Register notices clear the way for the Interior Department to put in place regulations it issued in November setting leasing guidelines in the Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, said Matt Spangler, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman.
Congress lifted a ban last year on drafting the regulations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Whitten in Washington at[email protected]
Last Updated: January 7, 2009 18:39 EST
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
