From the Wednesday, June 6, 2007 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .
The prospect of coal bed methane mining in the Canadian Flathead has once again raised its head.
On May 15 officials from British Petroleum sent Gov. Brian Schweitzer a letter saying it was
Now BP Canada wants to drill coalbed methane wells in the Canadian Flathead.
From the Thursday, May 31, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Brand-new plans to drill for coalbed methane in a wilderness valley north of Glacier National Park have Montana officials looking for a permanent solution to the decades-long debate over energy development in southeastern British Columbia.
From the Wednesday, May 23, 2007 online edition of the Flathead Beacon . . .
With U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wading into the issue, Montana has called in the big guns to combat the proposed Cline coalmine project in the headwaters of the Flathead River’s North Fork in British Columbia.
At the urging of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Rice pressed the Canadian federal government last month to invoke a more stringent environmental assessment of the proposed mine’s impacts than British Columbia’s government requires.
As of this writing, the Canadian federal government has not yet formally invoked its environmental assessment act. Until it does, the B.C. government retains authority over the mine’s permitting process.
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A bill signed by the governor yesterday, May 3, 2007, allocates $300,000 to the Flathead Basin Commission for baseline water quality monitoring for the North Fork of the Flathead River.
The money is included in the Department of Natural Resource and Conservation
From the Wednesday, April 25, 2007 online edition of the Havre Daily News . . .
Montana
From the Wednesday, April 25, 2007 online edition of the Great Falls Tribune . . .
Officials with state Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Tuesday the state can no longer afford to study the long-term population trend of grizzlies in northwest Montana without financial help from federal agencies.
If the monitoring abruptly ends because of the funding pinch, delisting efforts would be set back years, the FWP officials said.
“Zero chance of delisting unless we have some sort of monitoring program,” said Rick Mace, a Kalispell-based research biologist who heads the state’s monitoring efforts.
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From the Tuesday, April 24, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stands with Montana in opposing a coal mine planned for southeastern British Columbia, and will ask Canada to put the proposal through a wide-ranging federal review, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Tuesday.
Baucus said that at a meeting earlier in the day, Rice told him she will request the review later this week in Norway when she meets with her Canadian counterpart, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay.
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An Associated Press article linked to in the Friday, April 20, 2007 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
A wide-reaching wilderness protection bill that would forever ban logging, oil exploration and other development on 23 million acres across the Northern Rockies was introduced Friday by two East Coast members of Congress.
The proposal drew a quick backlash from natural resource industry lobbyists and some Western lawmakers who view it as an intrusion on their turf. But supporters hope a Democrat-controlled Capitol Hill will improve the odds of a bill that has gained little traction during eight prior attempts at passage.
The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act would more than double existing wilderness acreage in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Washington.
Sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, and Christopher Shays, R-Ct., the act would forbid most development across broad swaths of public land in the five states. It calls for the removal of more than 6,000 miles of existing roads, primarily within national forests.
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From the Saturday, March 31, 2007 online edition of the Missoulian . . .
Canada’s federal government has agreed to review a controversial coal mine proposal north of Glacier National Park, promising a far more exhaustive environmental analysis than currently planned.
An Associated Press article linked to in the Saturday, March 31, 2007 online edition of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
The environmental review for a coal mine planned in British Columbia and opposed in Montana is being ratcheted up, likely delaying the mine proposal by up to three years, said Sen. Max Baucus, whose goal is to have the proposal scrapped.
The Montana Democrat said Friday that Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson, has confirmed the project proposed by Cline Mining Corp. will be reviewed at the federal level. Earlier plans called for a review at the provincial level.
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