High Country News: Ever since the 19th century, Westerners have been trying to extract oil from the vast oil shale deposits that lie trapped in rock under our public lands. Every attempt to do so has failed; in fact, so much money has been wasted that it has inspired the ironic tagline: "Oil shale, fuel of the future--always has been, always will be."
But now, an Estonian energy giant is attempting to prove history wrong. It plans to construct a large oil shale mine and power plant in northeastern Utah, less than...