Oil shale battle heating up

There's an enigmatic story in today's New York Times Green Inc. section, discussing a report released back in March about the potential for oil shale development in the Colorado River basin to compete for water resources, possibly forcing lower basin states like Arizona to legally call for their senior downstream water rights.

There was nothing new in the story, so I was wondering what prompted them to revisit this issue. Then I spotted a separate news item that US Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) just introduced legislation to overturn the Interior Dept.'s recent revision of oil shale leasing restrictions and permanently adopt provisions developed by the Bush Administration last year. [right, oil shale sample. Credit, Interior Dept.]

Support growing to rebuild USGS Cooperative Water Program

The word from Capitol Hill watchers is that the House Appropriations Subcommittee is readying to mark-up the Dept. of Interior budget for next year by next week, likely June 10.

A plan is emerging to invest $35 million immediately into the USGS Cooperative Water Program to help make up for the shortfall in matches from state agencies. The Subcommittee, which is reportedly also concerned about stopping the degradation of the nation's stream gaging network now, is listening to the USGS advice to rebuild that network over a 3-5 year period, ramping up the program to $110M. It sounds like some of the funds they were considering putting into the stream gages could be diverted to the CWP without delaying an effective restoration of the gaging network.