nother company has transferred federal energy leases to a conservation group, further reducing the possibility of natural-gas development on public lands along Montana’s wildlife-rich Rocky Mountain Front.

Trout Unlimited said Tuesday that it received leases the Kohlman Co. held for potential gas work on the Front, the rugged expanse where the mountains meet the plains for about 100 miles south of Glacier National Park. Trout Unlimited, which has joined other groups in declaring the Front too environmentally sensitive for oil or gas drilling, said it intends to return those leases to the federal government.

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http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/03/05/state/79st_080305_petroleum.txt 

A Nevada energy company is planning to conduct seismic testing near Lima this year to determine the potential for oil and gas drilling.

Green River Energy Resources filed a notice of intent to conduct the testing along 26 miles of seismic lines on state and federal land west of Lima. The lands are a mix of state, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management property near the Big Sheep Creek drainage.

BLM officials expressed concerns about the testing’s impacts on area wildlife, especially in spring and summer when Green River is proposing the work. The testing involves underground blasting.

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http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2008/02/26/state_top/20080226_state_top.txt

Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation want to take the federal government’s place in regulating a type of well associated with oil and natural gas projects on the northeastern Montana reservation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Denver has found the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes capable of issuing permits for the wells and regulating them. The agency plans a public hearing Feb. 29 at Fort Peck Community College in Poplar.

The tribes would become the nation’s first to oversee the permitting and regulation of underground wells that are injected with a type of salty water that is a byproduct of oil and natural gas production, said Steve Minter, environmental protection specialist at EPA’s regional office.

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http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/02/11/state/80st_080211_tribes.txt 

Montanans are already veterans of the battles oil brings: from the donnybrook inspired by oil companies’ lust to drill on the Rocky Mountain Front to larger concerns over global warming’s influence on the state’s snow pack and fire seasons. Those fights will continue. In the meantime, Montana must choose what to do with the oil money generated over the next decade—to say nothing of the more nebulous social effects of petroleum addiction across the state.

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http://www.missoulanews.com/index.cfm?do=article.details&id=848CE158-D504-8E5C-483D12C20F5E2F4E