This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Rising oil prices and concerns over declining petroleum production worldwide revived U.S. interest in oil shale after a two-decade hiatus. In addition to technological challenges left unsolved from previous development efforts, environmental issues remained and new issues have emerged. Challenges to development also include competition with conventional petroleum production in the mid-continent region, and increasing petroleum imports from Canada. Contents of this report: Background; Oil Shale Resource Potential; Challenges to Development; Commercial Leasing Program; R&D Program; Programmatic Environ. Impact Statement; Mineral Leasing Act Amendments; Commercial Lease Sale and Royalty Rates. Illus.

See journals under US Geological survey. Prof. paper 1310.

Discusses possibility of large oil company monopolization of oil shale development in the Rocky Mountains.

In the early 1980s, industry and government took a hard look at the economics of extracting oil from vast deposits of shale that lie beneath the western United States. Oil prices subsided, and interest waned. With oil prices spiking and global demand showing no signs of abating, reexamining the economics of oil shale makes sense. In this report, the authors describe oil shale resources; suitability, cost, and performance of new technologies; and key policy issues that need to be addressed by government decisionmakers in the near future.