§ 63M-3-102. Legislative findings -- Purpose of act.

(1) The Legislature finds that:

(a) Substantial deposits of tar sands exist within lands located in various places within the state of Utah, but this is primarily a Utah phenomenon, there being no similar significant deposits within lands located elsewhere in the United States.

(b) While large known deposits of tar sands exist outside the United States, primarily in South America and Canada, only those in Canada produce commercial quantities of hydrocarbons, this having come about only after years of research and experimentation and substantial private and public investment.

(c) Significant laboratory research has been conducted, including research by the University of Utah, which demonstrates a potential for commercial production of the tar sands deposits located in the state of Utah, which potential remains to be established by the scale-up of laboratory research to a pilot plant development stage.

(d) Successful demonstration of a hydrocarbon recovery process from Utah tar sands as commercially viable at the pilot plant level of production could form the basis for the development by private industry of commercial production of a substantial volume of hydrocarbon energy fuel, thereby commensurately reducing the amount of petroleum products which are required to be imported at exorbitant cost from foreign sources to meet the needs of the citizens of this state and the United States.

(2) The purpose of this act is to stimulate and encourage the development and commercial production by private industry of hydrocarbons from the tar sands deposits lying within the state of Utah for the public good and economic well-being of the citizens of this state and the United States, and to so do by providing for the design, construction, and operation of a pilot plant to be employed for the purpose of demonstrating the commercial viability of processes for the recovery of hydrocarbons from the tar sands deposits of the state through certain funding by the state in conjunction with funding furnished from other sources, both public and private.

Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 382, 2008 General Session