Efforts to pare down oil shale and tar sand acreages for leasing proposed by the Obama administration have state and local government officials pushing back.
A press conference with officials from Colorado, Utah and Wyoming was held in Vernal on Tuesday for the group to publicly voice their discontent.
At stake — 2 million acres and nearly 2 trillion potential barrels of oil — which officials say will be effectively shut off from energy development should the revised federal plan go through.
The new plan reduces lease lands to just over 461,000 acres: 35,308 in Colorado; 252,181 in Utah; and 174,476 in Wyoming with 91,045 acres in Utah for tar sands. The Vernal Express
