Tester, Baucus support lease solution

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

The Flathead Basin Commission has asked Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester to find a way to compensate and retire all pending oil and gas leases in the Flathead National Forest.

The Commission passed the resolution late last month.

Both senators said they support such a measure.

And while Forest Service officials here have said there hasn't been much, if any, interest in completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) on oil and gas leases, the Commission would still like to see the matter put to bed.

Caryn Miske, the executive director of the Commission, said the board passed the resolution for two reasons. For one, it recognizes that the EIS could be completed. But secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it wanted to show British Columbia that it was serious about oil and gas development on both sides of the border.

"It's important we have our own house in order," Miske said.

The Commission has been highly critical of British Columbia's plans to develop coal and coal bed methane wells in the Flathead.

"If we're saying this place is special, then we have to show (British Columbia) we mean it," she said.

But the U.S. has its own issues with energy exploration in the Flathead.

The Whitefish Range, for example, has hundreds of leases. All of them have been in limbo for more than 20 years, stemming from a 1980s court decision that said the Forest Service needed to do a complete environmental impact statement on the matter before any development could take place.

The EIS was never even started, but with oil and gas prices skyrocketing — coupled with the prospects of energy development in the Canadian Flathead — there's worry that it could be, Miske noted.

The Commission forwarded the resolution to Baucus' and Tester's offices.

Baucus supports the resolution.

"He absolutely thinks it's the right thing to do," Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said last week. "He believes strongly that for us to expect that British Columbia does the right thing that we need to do the right thing as well."

Tester also supports the idea.

"It doesn't matter which side of

which side of the border you're talking about, oil and gas development in the North Fork of the Flathead is unacceptable. That part of the world is too valuable to put at risk. The leases on our side have been on hold for a long time and we ought to start talking about what we can do to take them out of the picture altogether—the same way we did with the Rocky Mountain Front," Tester said.

How the leases would be terminated hasn't been worked out, yet.

Miske likened it to taking the first step on a 20-rung ladder. But Baucus last year was able to pass legislation that terminated leases on the Rocky Mountain Front. That legislation gave energy companies large tax breaks for selling or giving up their leases to conservation groups, taking them permanently out of commission.