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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies looking to tap the U.S.'s vast oil shale resources now have rules to live by.
The Bush administration on Monday issued final rules setting parameters for oil shale development on public land. The regulations give companies a steep discount in royalties they pay to the federal government in the first five years of production.
The announcement by the Interior Department comes months after Congress -- pressured by the White House and Republicans to increase domestic energy -- failed to renew a ban on issuing final oil shale regulations. Officials said leasing was five to 10 years away.
Up to 800 billion barrels of oil -- enough to displace oil imports for 100 years -- is locked within fine-grained rock known as oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
