Feds approve gas drilling plan for Montana

[IDemo]

Drilling has boomed over the past decade in neighboring Wyoming

AP -updated 7:20 a.m. MT, Wed., Dec. 31, 2008

BILLINGS, Mont. - The Bush administration has approved a plan that could allow more than 18,000 natural gas wells to be drilled in southeastern Montana over the next two decades.

The decision by C. Stephen Allred, assistant secretary for land and minerals management at the Department of Interior, would allow companies to proceed with plans to drill on more than 1.5 million acres of federal land in Montana's remote Powder River Basin.

Drilling in the basin has boomed over the past decade across the border in neighboring Wyoming. The heady pace of development pumped tens of millions of dollars into local communities — but also depleted water supplies and battered populations of game animals including sage grouse.

Tuesday's approval of the Montana development plan followed a three year delay caused by drilling opponents. Conservation groups and the Northern Cheyenne tribe won a court order temporarily blocking drilling in 2005, over worries it could foul water supplies and harm wildlife.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28448192/

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more on the impacts of coalbed methane extraction in the Powder River Basin: http://www.powderriverbasin.org/CatInfo.cfm?CatID=85