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Washington • The Interior Department pledged Tuesday to take a "fresh look" at oil shale regulations in the Intermountain West, though officials signaled that any new proposal could include far less land than approved under the previous administration.

The review comes as part of a settlement by the Interior Department and environmental groups, which sued in the waning days of George W. Bush's presidency against rules governing commercial leasing of public lands to extract the synthetic oil from sedimentary rock in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.

Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey said his agency may do further analysis of environmental effects, consider changing the Bush-era 5 percent royalty rate, and review how to dole out leases for commercial ventures seeking to unlock the oil.

"We're not sure that 2 million acres should be allocated for this type of use," Abbey said in a conference call, "but, nonetheless, we're willing to go back and revisit the issue."

The BLM boss stressed that the department is committed to finding a viable way to tap oil shale deposits, which government scientists and industry officials suggest hold more than 2 trillion barrels of a crude oil equivalent.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the department would weigh the need for water to produce oil shale and be mindful of the 1970s oil shale boom and bust that scarred Colorado's landscape.

"We need to move forward and examine the possibility of developing oil shale as part of our national portfolio of energy," Salazar said, "but we need to do it in a wise way."

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., called Salazar's announcement yet another example of the Obama administration stopping job-energy projects before they begin.

"There is no need to review the rules," Hastings said, "unless their intention is to halt progress on the development of our oil shale resources."

Interior has sanctioned six leases for commercial oil shale research, including one in eastern Utah with the prospect of another near Vernal.

"This is a great resource that has basically been locked up and strangled by this administration," said Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. "... The Interior Department simply has a hostile attitude, and that is not going to attract people who want to do the demonstration projects."

The Colorado-based Western Resource Advocates, a plaintiff in the suit against the Bush rules, welcomed Interior's review.

"We have to make sure," said David Abelson, a policy adviser for the group, "'[that] the decisions being made are in the best interest of the taxpayer, are in the best interest of local economies, [and] address the huge competition for water in the West." tburr@sltrib.com