Feds approve water rules for gas drillers

The federal government has approved strict new water-quality standards sought by Montana over fears that natural-gas drilling in neighboring Wyoming could pollute interstate rivers. Montana officials said Monday that the new rules would protect farmers from poor-quality water produced during exploration for coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas. But with a federal lawsuit over the issue still pending in Cheyenne, it was not immediately clear how far Montana could go in enforcing the standards. More than 20,000 coal-bed methane wells have been drilled in northern Wyoming over the past decade. The Associated Press

USDA Rural Utilities program explains Highwood funding pullout

Top federal officials Monday said concerns over rising construction costs, legal challenges and other potential delays led them to pull the plug on financing for the proposed Highwood Generating Station east of Great Falls.

“The feasibility of it made us a little bit nervous,” Rural Utilities Service Administrator James Andrew said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.

Between 2001 and 2007, the USDA’s Rural Utility Service was the primary means for rural electric cooperatives to finance new construction of transmission and generation. RUS provided $1.3 billion in funding for new coal-fired plants

But RUS said last month it had been directed by the federal Office of Management and Budget not to use any of its 2008 funding for loans to build base load electric generation.

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http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/NEWS01/803040301

EPA OKs Mont. water standards, but lawsuit still looms

BILLINGS, Mont. – The federal government has approved strict new water quality standards sought by Montana over fears that natural gas drilling in neighboring Wyoming could pollute interstate rivers.

Montana officials said Monday that the new rules would protect farmers from poor-quality water produced during exploration for coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas. Over the last decade, that industry has boomed just over the state line in Wyoming.

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http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/03/04/ap-state-mt/d8v6abk00.txt