Wayne Allard: “In 2005, I worked closely with my colleagues in the House and in the Senate on provisions which were included in section…”

“In 2005, I worked closely with my colleagues in the House and in the Senate on provisions which were included in section 369 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These will help lead to commercialization after the research and demonstration projects currently underway have proven themselves. As those of us who have to run a business know, it is a bad practice to pour millions of dollars into research and development projects with no hint of assurance that these projects will lead to commercialization. Understanding the regulatory framework within which development must take place is important to companies making investment decisions. I believe, as I did in 2005, that it is critical to give companies investing tens of millions of dollars into these research projects a proverbial ``light at the end of the tunnel.'' The timeline included in this section of the Energy Policy Act for setting up a regulatory framework for oil shale development required the Department of the Interior to develop a programmatic environmental impact statement for oil shale by February of 2007 and to finalize oil shale regulations by August of 2007. Although these dates have slipped, many who are concerned with decreasing our country's dependence on foreign sources of oil remain interested in seeing this process move forward. A regulatory framework is needed in order to clarify the range of development options.”