Getting your player ready...
SALT LAKE CITY—Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has requested an investigation into last-minute changes the Bush administration made to speed up oil-shale development in the Rocky Mountains.
Salazar says he’s asking his department’s inspector general, Mary Kendall, to look into the changes.
Salazar says that in the final days of the Bush administration, the Interior Department added 30,000 acres to existing oil-shale leases and locked in a bargain royalty rate for oil companies.
Salazar says the changes were made Jan. 15 without any public notice.
In addition, Salazar said Tuesday he was opening a second, more environmentally sensitive round of oil-shale leasing for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
