GRAND JUNCTION – Two state officials are criticizing the Bureau of Land Management over its environmental assessment of an oil shale project in Rio Blanco County, saying the agency’s proposal would allow it to ignore state regulations.Shell Frontier Oil & Gas Co. is proposing oil shale research and development projects in the Piceance Basin. In a recent environmental assessment, the BLM said the company must comply with state and local regulations and obtain all applicable permits for rights-of-way and road access.But the BLM said it would waive the requirement for such compliance if it determines that state regulations conflict with the “achievement of a congressionally approved use of public lands.”Colorado Water Quality Control Division Director Steve Gunderson and Air Pollution Control Division Director Margie Perkins said in a Sept. 15 letter to the BLM the state “strongly disagrees” that the agency can “unilaterally waive state and local laws and disregard state permit conditions.””We’re a state, and we believe very strongly in state authority and state rights,” Gunderson said Tuesday. “Any permits that the state requires for any sort of activity that has any potential impact to the environment, they’d have to comply with those permits.”BLM state office spokeswoman Denise Adamic said the BLM cannot waive state or local laws. Shell would still have to apply for a permit to obtain rights-of-way and road access, she said.”If the local government agency won’t grant them the permit for the right of way, then that portion of the overall (research and development) permit would be waived,” Adamic said.Gunderson and Perkins have said the Shell projects would have a “significant adverse impact” to the area, despite the BLM writing in its assessment that they could reduce visibility in the Flat Tops Wilderness for only up to two weeks each year. It also said that all current and foreseeable energy development in the basin could reduce visibility in the Flat Tops up to 20 days each year.”I think it’s fair to say that we found much of the (BLM’s) work to be inadequate to come to some of the conclusions they got to,” Perkins said.