North Fork has plenty of oil, gas leases in U.S.

The North Fork of the Flathead is blanketed by oil and gas leases and they’re not in Canada — they’re right here in Montana, just north of Columbia Falls on Flathead National Forest lands.

The leases date back to the 1970s and have been held in what amounts to legal limbo since 1985, when James R. Conner of Kalispell, members of the Montana Wildlife Federation and the Madison-Gallatin Alliance sued Robert Burford, director of the Bureau of Land Management.

In early 1981, the Forest Service issued environmental assessments recommending that 1.3 million acres of land in the Flathead and Gallatin National Forests be leased for oil and gas development.

Read the story here:

http://www.hungryhorsenews.com/articles/2008/03/20/news/news01.txt 

Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say

The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030901867.html

Trout Unlimited acquires petroleum leases on Rocky Mountain Front

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.

Read the entire story here:

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