From the Friday, August 27, 2004 issue of the Daily Inter Lake . . .
"No bids" was the surprising result of an auction for controversial coal bed methane leases in southeastern British Columbia.
The province posted the results of Wednesday's auction on the Internet Thursday morning.
A coalition of Montana and Canadian property owners, businesses, tribes, recreation groups and conservationists today applauded oil and gas companies for declining to bid on the leases.
The leases were offered for drilling rights on 4,900 acres of land divided into two parcels in the Flathead and Elk river watersheds.
Coalition representatives considered the lack of bids a victory in a political battle that has carried on for several months. Montana's top elected officials had been pressing the province and Canada's federal government to conduct comprehensive environmental assessments before awarding exploratory drilling leases.
"Certainly, the fact that there were no bids has to be partly attributed to our campaign of education and our request to all oil and gas companies to refrain from bidding," said Dave Thomas, a member of the city council in Fernie, British Columbia.
"We're giving credit to the oil and gas companies for having good sense ... Anybody bidding on this would know that it is politically perilous and they would get caught up in an international conflict."
Thomas and other representatives from the coalition recently met with Canadian oil and gas executives, urging them to steer clear of the Flathead and Elk river leases.
"We met with them and asked them not to get involved in this contentious issue, and they have responded positively to our request," said Rose Schwennesen, a Bigfork Realtor and vice president of the Montana-based Flathead Coalition. "We applaud the companies for their clear-sighted pragmatism."
Read the entire article . . .
Posted by nfpa at August 27, 2004 11:14 AM