From the Friday, September 14, 2007 online edition of The Globe and Mail . . .

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is accusing Premier Gordon Campbell of breaching a four-year-old pact to protect environmentally sensitive areas that straddle the border.

Mr. Schweitzer, in a three-page letter sent Aug. 22, says the province’s decision to allow two projects – a coal mine and a coal bed methane development – to proceed through the early stages of permission is of “continued concern” to the state and a breach of the 2003 Environmental Cooperation Arrangement between Montana and British Columbia.

“Since the signing of the Environmental Cooperation Arrangement there have been five separate proposals for exploratory and industrial fossil fuel development in the British Columbia Flathead,” the letter states. “I believe the intent [of the arrangement] is not being met and the proposed fossil fuel developments over the past five years run contrary to the language of the arrangement …”

The governor’s letter – combined with combative language on Monday from Montana’s two U.S. senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester – points to an escalation of the cross-border war of words over potential resource development in southeastern B.C.

Read the entire article . . .