Proposed oil shale and tar sands resource management plan amendments to address land use allocations in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and final programmatic environmental impact statement: Volume 1: Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4

In August 2005, the U.S. Congress enacted the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Public Law (P.L.) 109-58. In Section 369 of this Act, titled the "Oil Shale, Tar Sands, and Other Strategic Unconventional Fuels Act of 2005", Congress declared that oil shale and tar sands (and other unconventional fuels) are strategically important domestic energy resources that should be developed to reduce the nation's growing dependence on oil from politically and economically unstable foreign sources. To support this policy, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior (the Secretary) to undertake a series of steps to establish a commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands. A principle provision mandated the Secretary to "...Complete a programmatic environmental impact statement for a commercial leasing program for oil shale and tar sands resources on public lands, with an emphasis on the most geologically prospective lands in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming."