From the Thursday, August 23, 2007 online edition of the Hungry Horse News . . .

Montana Sen. Jon Tester has raised opposition to coal bed methane exploration and development in the Canadian Flathead. But the company that plans on doing the drilling claims it will do the work in an environmentally sensitive manner.

Tester, in a letter earlier this month to Andy Inglis, the chief executive of energy and exploration for British Petroleum, said he had “serious reservations and opposition” to BP Canada Energy Company’s recent proposal to begin coal bed methane exploration in the Flathead.

The river forms most of the western boundary of Glacier National Park. Opponents in the U.S. claim CBM development in Canada would harm not only the water quality here, but would also harm large carnivores like wolves and grizzly bears, which routinely cross the border into Canada.

Coal bed methane development requires a large network of football field-sized well pads and roads to serve them.

The disturbance is compounded by millions of gallons of wastewater from the operations that in, in most cases, is unpotable and toxic to fish and anything else that consumes it.

Read the entire article . . .