Coalbed methane -- plan B

We have expressed concern about coalbed methane development because of its potential negative impact on farming and ranching.

Specifically, the salinization of the Tongue and Powder Rivers through dumping highly saline water from deep coal seams could permanently damage irrigated farmland along those rivers. One doesn't have to have spent a lot of time in eastern Montana to know that well-watered farmland is a scarce and precious commodity in those parts.

In an exciting development, a CBM drilling company has come up with a plan to take water from the deep (roughly 1000 ft) coal seams where the methane is being extracted, and to reinject that water into a shallower coal seam (about 300 feet) that has the capacity to absorb the water.

This is the best of both worlds, since it not only prevents salinzation of rivers and soil, it also puts this water at a level where it can be reached with conventional well-drilling and used for things like watering livestock.

Permit applications are being submitted, and if things are as billed, it will be a win-win for everyone.

Bill Richardson -- the NRA's guy for President?

A nice piece in National Review Online points out that Democratic long-shot candidate Bill Richardson has a far superior record on 2nd amendment rights than do 3 of the leading Republican contenders: Guiliani, Romney, and Gingrich. Romney gets a particularly well-deserved thrashing, and not because he isn't a hunter.

(Incidentally, has there been any recent candidate -- other than Dole in 1996 -- where the disconnect between a strong possibility of getting the nomination and a zero possibility of winning the general election has been so great as with Romney?)

In Dave Kopel's article, only Mike Huckabee is commended on the Republican side for having strong, credible, positions on the 2nd amendment -- and he has virtually no chance of getting the Republican nomination, especially given the poor review he received from the Club for Growth (he gets high marks from them only on their worst position -- the one where Republicans should disagree with them: unlimited international free trade.)

McCain gets silence, appropos for the general distrust he engenders in the Republican party in spite of reasonably conservative voting records -- and in spite of the fact that when it comes right down to it, he could win against any of the leading Democrats, whereas neither Guiliani nor Romney could.

Kopel:

If the Republicans nominated Giuliani and the Democrats Richardson, the NRA would be crazy not to support Richardson with everything in its political arsenal. More generally, as the New York Sun reported on April 5, “the thinking within the organization is that it would eagerly endorse a consistently pro-gun Democrat over a Republican who has been inconsistent in protecting Second Amendment rights.”

No wonder our local liberal gun-hugger, Wulfgar, seems to have a soft spot for the good guv from down yonder.

Kopel points out that the two recent times when the Republican candidate wasn't able to get an endorsement from the NRA (Bush in 1992 and Dole in 1996) -- the GOP lost.

As a final note, Mike Huckabee's answers indicate that he understands basic 2nd amendment issues, such as the fact that the "right to bear arms" has nothing to do with hunting. Kopel quotes from an interview Huckabee had with Hugh Hewitt:

HH:…What about assault weapons, or what is called assault weapons in the law? Should Americans be allowed to have them?

MH: Absolutely. Americans ought to be allowed to have anything they want to have, as long as they’re law abiding, legal citizens. The 2nd Amendment was not there for hunting. I get so offended when Democrats talk about it as if you don’t need an assault weapon to hunt. Well truthfully, most Democrats wouldn’t know an assault weapon from a BB gun.

I’m a hunter, I have been my whole life. But the 2nd Amendment is not just about hunting. It’s about protecting your family, your property, and it’s honestly about defending ourselves against a tyrannical government, should it ever go haywire on us.

Wulfgar (who does seem to know an assault weapon from a BB gun) couldn't have said it better himself.