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Microcap & Penny Stocks : RGBL.OB RG Global Lifestyles, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GC who wrote (280)	4/30/2008 8:01:53 AM
From: GC	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 337

50,000 CBM Wells in Wyoming + 18,000 wells in Montana Planned By DUSTIN BLEIZEFFER Star-Tribune energy reporter Saturday, May 22, 2004 12:00 AM MDT GILLETTE -- Yet another federal lawsuit has been filed over coalbed methane gas development in Wyoming and Montana, this time focusing on air quality issues. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Billings, Mont., by several environmental groups, including the Montana Environmental Information Center, National Parks Conservation Association, the National Wildlife Federation and Environmental Defense. "We know we are going to have a large-scale increase in coalbed methane development. We know it leads to increases in air pollution, we know the government -- by its own analysis -- has predicted there's going to be violations of the Clean Air Standards," said Anne Hedges, program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center. Diesel and natural gas-burning compressor stations are the main air pollution sources related coalbed methane development -- an industry that is expected to drill as many as 51,000 wells in Wyoming and 18,000 wells in Montana. The emissions can include nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxides and particulates that may reduce visibility. Coalbed methane producers point to the nationwide demand for natural gas as a clean-burning alternative to coal, but Hedges said the natural gas industry must still be held to clean air standards in producing the resource. "Natural gas shouldn't have a pass on protecting air quality. We're also fighting coal-fired power plants," Hedges said. * John Wright, spokesman for the Department of Interior, said he could not comment on the lawsuit directly because he had not read it. However, he stressed that the several layers of permitting involved in coalbed methane include working with local air quality regulators to ensure that no air quality standards are being violated. "Whatever decision we make, we make it based on what impact it might have on public health and safety so (development activities) don't violate any standards that we've established," Wright said in a phone interview Friday. The lawsuit follows three others that were filed in Montana's federal court system a year ago against the Department of Interior over coalbed methane development in Montana and Wyoming targeting the Bureau of Land Management's Environmental Impact Statements in the greater Powder River Basin. Those suits centered on allegations that BLM's Resource Management Plans for the basin do not go far enough to protect water, soil and wildlife resources as required by federal law. The Wyoming Attorney General was successful in transferring those legal questions involving coalbed methane development in Wyoming to Wyoming's federal court system.