This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A lawyer for an environmental organization speaking to a legislative committee Wednesday halted in mid-sentence when a lawmaker declared he shouldn't continue without being sworn in.
Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, a member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, said Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance staff attorney Stephen Bloch needed to be under oath because someone had raised concerns that his previous testimony before the House on HJR10 was inaccurate or false.
Bloch said he would love to testify under oath, and did so. The committee did not, however, require David Litvin of the Utah Mining Association, Lee Peacock of the Utah Petroleum Association or Todd Bingham of the Utah Farm Bureau to swear to tell the truth.
Bloch opposed the resolution, arguing wilderness ought to be considered as important as any federal land use, including grazing, mineral extraction and recreation. Litvin, Peacock and Bingham said they supported the resolution sponsored by Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville.
HJR10 urges Congress to reject America's Red Rock Wilderness Act, which has been before the U.S. House since former Utah Rep. Wayne Owens introduced it in 1988. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-New York, now sponsors the bill that seeks to establish nine million acres of wilderness in Utah.
HJR10 says Hinchey's bill "seeks to deny Utah citizens access and multiple use to more than nine million acres of Utah federal land through wilderness designation." The resolution also says the Uintah Basin contains 80 billion barrels of known recoverable oil shale reserves and 12 billion barrels of known recoverable oil from tar sands, resources that would reduce the nation's energy dependence.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is now holding hearings on a broad environmental study to identify which federal lands eventually ought to be open to oil shale and tar sand leasing, acknowledges the estimates aren't based on reality.
The term "known recoverable" is misleading, as are the yield estimates, but the agency had to include some number in its environmental study, said Washington, D.C.-based BLM spokeswoman Heather Feeney. The estimates come from a 2005 Rand Corporation study, she said.
"Right now there is no technologically or economically viable way to recover oil shale," Feeney said. "In this particular geological formation, it's difficult to determine exactly what portion is recoverable."