STB rendering of the proposed Uinta Basin Oil train.

Uinta Basin Railway Comment Period has been extended until Feb 12 2021, and YOU can still add your comment to the Draft EIS. Utah Tar Sands Resistance has been working with the Center for Biological Diversity and others to stop this expensive subsidy. Follow the links below to add your comment. Please share.

Here are some ideas for commenting.

The proposed Uinta Basin Railway would be a train wreck for our air, wildlands, climate and communities. This multi-billion-dollar boondoggle would ruin more than 10,000 acres of habitat for migratory wildlife and endangered species while worsening the climate crisis. 

But you can help stop it.

Uinta basin oil train will require several expensive tunnels and numerous stream crossings.

The Surface Transportation Board has released this project’s draft environmental impact statement for review by the public. But the board is only accepting comments until Feb. 12, 2021 so you need to take action now.

The STB states:

“Based on the analysis in the Draft EIS, OEA concludes that construction and operation of any of the alternatives would result in significant environmental impacts. Major impacts would include temporary and permanent impacts on surface waters and wetlands; impacts on biological resources, including federally listed threatened and endangered species and other protected species; permanent changes to land uses on public and private lands; and noise impacts on residences near the proposed rail line during rail operations” Oil and gas extraction are already poisoning the Uinta Basin, harming people and wildlife. The proposed railway would make things much worse — in fact, it could quadruple crude-oil extraction while tearing up habitat for species like the greater sage grouse and endangered Barnaby ridge-cress. 

Tell the Surface Transportation Board to stop the Uinta Basin Railway in its tracks.

Use the links above to comment through the CBD “fast action” page or comment directly here:

http://www.uintabasinrailwayeis.com/PublicInvolvement.aspx

Public comment to SITLA board of trustees Aug 13 2020.

Raphael Cordray Utah Tar Sands Resistance

Good Morning. I want to tell the board how they are being used to defraud investors and local communities as well as defrauding the Trust through questionable business practices. And I ask you to stop this. SITLA and the board of trustees have a duty to make sure that they and the trust are not being used to generate transactions for pump and dump penny stock scams. SITLA has spent trust money to create an OBA for Viva Ventures Oil Sands LLC. On March 20, 2019, the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration Board of Trustees approved this OBA for Viva Ventures Inc. Viva ventures subsequently made a the following paid press release:

“Utah Trust Lands Board Approval Substantially Increases Vivakor Oil Sand Resources LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / March 25, 2019 / Vivakor, Inc. (OTC PINK: VIVK ), a technology and asset acquisition company with a focus in the area of natural resources, received approval from the Board of Trustees for the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) for a bituminous/Asphaltic sands mineral lease in a 1440 acre area of Eastern Utah known to have enormous heavy crude, bituminous sand deposits. ″We are pleased the SITLA Board unanimously approved this mineral lease, allowing us to work with the State organization in verifying the asset reserve and ultimately deploying our technology on this vast 1440 acre area. We have a great working relationship with them, successfully operating on their properties previously, demonstrating our commitment to the area and the viability of our technology. Our Remediation Processing Centers (RPCs) are the key to unlocking and finally monetizing the literal billions of barrels of heavy crude trapped within sands in Eastern Utah,″ stated Vivakor Chief Executive Officer Matt Nicosia.”

#END OF PRESS RELEASE#

On March 20, 2019 Trent Staggs appeared before the SITLA board and agreed to terms for a special lease with SITLA, he made inaccurate claims and promises to the SITLA board who approved the contract. I understand that Vivakor never signed the contract with SITLA and VIVAKOR is not leasing anything from SITLA.

However the VIVAKOR press release was used to stimulate stock transactions and generate investment and trust in Viva Ventures and Vivakor. This was a classic pump and dump. VIVAKOR issued mis-information to drive up their stock price and then the directors dumped their worthless stock options into the heated market. At the March 20, 2019 SITLA meeting it was shown by a member of the public that Viva Ventures Oil Sands Inc. had an expired business registration and thus was not authorized to do business with SITLA or anyone in Utah. Further questions were raised at the meeting about this transaction by Director Foote and Director Woodbury. however the board still approved the contract. Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs represented Viva Ventures Oil Sands at the public meeting and testified on behalf of the company in their effort to gain approval from the board for an OBA they had no intention of executing. Here is a portion of his statement: “Um I’m here, I’m an elected official in this state. I’m very vested in this community and our our company is as well” …. Most absurdly he claimed they would clean up mother nature’s mess in Eastern Utah:

“This land owned by sitla, the sitla property can be successfully a remediated we view it all the same it is remediation whether we are cleaning up a oil spills in the middle east or we like to say we are cleaning up mother nature’s mess in eastern Utah” -Trent Staggs

Trent Staggs says he will clean up mother natures mess. Here is an area Vivakor will “remediate”

Mr Woodbury pointed out that remediation is not the same as subsurface mining. SITLA director, David Ure vouched for Viva Ventures and encouraged the approval. It was stated by Jerry Mansfield that they have a process to check if a company is licensed to do business in Utah before they sign the lease.

Why doesn’t the staff verify the license of an applicant for an OBA before spending staff time and resources on creating an OBA that may never be signed?

What follow up has been done on this contract why has the board and the public not been told that the deal never went through?

How much time and money was spent on this OBA arrangement?

What will the board do to keep from being used like this to manipulate stock prices?

Tar sands and oil shale are frequently used as a tool for scamming investors

This board has a duty to respond to the repeated use of SITLA lands, lease holds, resources and staff to perpetuate false value in impossible plans to turn rocks into oil. How many companies will you aid in defrauding communities, investors, tax payers and most importantly the school trust?

Here are some of the tar sands and oil shale projects which have used SITLA

and never completed there project or made money for SITLA: US Oil Sands now renamed 2020 resources, Red Leaf Resources, MCW Energy now renamed as Petroteq energy and  Enefit. These companies have however generated significant financial investments from investors and local communities. Although none of these companies are profitable they do pay large salaries to their ceo’s.

Shame on SITLA for continuing to ignore this scam.

Join the Virtual SITLA Board meeting

this Thursday, August 13, 2020 @ 10 am.

US Oil sands went bankrupt and defaulted on payments to SITLA.

Remember SITLA? They control Utah School Trust Lands therefore including leases for waste disposal, fracking, grazing, mining  and strip mines for coal and oil.  Recently SITLA claimed limited interest in Solar Power applications.  Is this changing? 

Listen, Watch, and Make a Comment on ZOOM. 

SITLA will hold a monthly board meeting on Thursday August 13 at 10 am.

See the agenda here with instructions.

SITLA land on Seep Ridge road should be restored to the Ute tribe. It is part of the Uncompahgre reservation stolen through the dawes act.

Public comment is encouraged and occurs at the beginning of the meeting

You can register now or by 9:50 am Thursday if possible. 

You can also submit a written comment.  

UTSR filed a lawsuit against SITLA

UTSR fought for public accountability and transparency from SITLA. By filing a lawsuit against the SITLA Board and Exec. Director David Ure for their lack of transparency and accountability.

Utah Tar Sands Resistance does direct action AND attends SITLA board meetings.

Here is how it happened.  In January 2018 SITLA  (School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration), held a Board Meeting and Retreat where they mistakenly handed me a Confidential Agenda. Most importantly, the SITLA Board’s use of a confidential agenda was a serious violation of the Utah Open Public Meetings act (OPMA). Therefore, after hours of research, talking to attorneys and help from many sources, I sued SITLA myself and on behalf of Utah Tar sands Resistance for  the OPMA violation. See the lawsuit here: Cordray vs SITLA

Yipee!

SITLA acknowledged mistakes and makes some improvements

In the year since I have met with attorneys for SITLA several times and sought many improvements to SITLA’s public meeting process.  As a result of this lawsuit SITLA has corrected earlier mistakes and is proposing a settlement agreement for SITLA to follow and exceed OPMA requirements. We are currently continuing to negotiate an agreement with SITLA to settle this lawsuit. 

SITLA director David Ure

We have had a lot of movement and improvement on virtual meetings. For instance  SITLA agreed to make all board members visible on the screen at the same time (gallery view). Also they now allow live public comment during the meeting including verbatim reading of written comments into the record by SITLA staff. Other areas of focus have been the requirements for specificity of the agenda and proper public notice as well as applying the specificity to the closed meeting topics on public agendas. 

I hope you will join me this Thursday, August 13, 2020 @ 10 am for the Virtual SITLA Board meeting.  You can register now or by 9:50 am Thursday if possible.

US Oil Sands the fraudulent tar sands strip mining company changed its name to 2020 Resources. This is the third time since 2005. They first began leasing land for strip mining in Eastern Utah, as “Earth Energy Resources”. 

The newly named  “2020 resources” has never actually made a profit however they have continued to pay large salaries to the CEOs after delisting from the stock market and declaring bankruptcy in 2017.  All the public stock holders lost their investment and numerous creditors were forced to forgive US Oil Sands debts. For example the state of Utah. SITLA was owed $275,000 for lease payments that were forgiven through bankruptcy. “2020 resources” continues to defraud investors, local businesses and communities under this new name. 

2020 resources makes false claims on their web page. There is no environmentally friendly way to turn rocks into oil. Tar sands mining is the most destructive project on earth. It has shown to be energy intensive. It takes massive amounts of water. Tar sands requires major upgrading and produces a dirty fuel. The mine site continues to remain idle as of 2019 meanwhile the CEOs who live in Canada are making money by not ever going commercial. Don’t be fooled by 2020 resources. 

In honor of the day US Oil Sands went bankrupt Utah Tar Sands Resistance held a party this morning at the rarely used tar factory on Seep Ridge Road. We came with a new banner, some music and announcements about the bankruptcy of US Oil Sands in 2017. US Oil Sands has wasted land and resources and cheated investors due to their bankruptcy. The idle mine is on SITLA land stolen from the Ute people it is on the Uncompahgre reservation.

Banner at US Oil Sands tar factory on Seep Ridge Road B

Now called USO Utah, the inactive mine site and factory has reduced it’s leasehold considerably. USO Utah cleared the bankruptcy courts and restructured therefore a clean bill of credit has been given to USO Utah. The contractors are there tuning up the unused equipment and polishing the useless factory to feed the real golden goose: foolish investors, creditors and the tax payers of Utah!  

We arrived early to greet workers and let them know about the anniversary and the scam. We were there to let arriving contractors and service providers know that anyone who works at this project should be aware that they may not get paid. Many investors have lost their fortune to tar sands scams. US Oil Sands have harmed local workers and their families by exploiting the bust and boom cycles these scams thrive on. 

2020 Resources is the new name of US Oil Utah. Here is the idle tar factory.

Here is a list of businesses who lost money as a result of US Oil Sands bankruptcy

USO Utah is seeking investors. 

Do Not Be Fooled USO Utah is a SCAM!

Update: USO Utah has changed it’s name (again) the new name is 2020 Resources.