WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2019) A notice of intent to sue the Trump administration to block pipeline and powerline rights-of-way needed for a commercial US shale oil project located in the state of Utah was announced in a press release by multiple environmental advocacy groups.
"The massive Enefit project in Utah's Uintah Basin would drain billions of gallons of water from the Green River, threaten endangered species and generate enormous amounts of greenhouse gas pollution," the groups said in the release on Tuesday.
Lawsuit organizers included the Center for Biological Diversity, Grand Canyon Trust, Living Rivers/Colorado RiverKeeper, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, Waterkeeper Alliance and Earthjustice, the release said.
The notice charged that the US Bureau of Land Management and US Fish and Wildlife Service failed to protect several endangered species when they approved electricity, oil, gas and water lines across public lands, the release said.
The notice also argued that Federal agencies violated the law by ignoring the potential harm to imperiled fish, studying only the harm from water depletions necessary to build the pipeline, not to operate it, the release added.
Oil shale is one of world's most carbon-intensive fuels, which can require several barrels of water for each barrel of oil produced, according to the release. At full buildout, Enefit's facility would produce 50,000 barrels per day of oil from the Green River Formation.
An Enefit project website claims the shale formation holds 3.5 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
