Group takes coal-bed concerns to London

Concerned that British Petroleum may someday return with plans for coal-bed methane development in Canada's Flathead River drainage, representatives from the Flathead Coalition recently called on the company leadership in London.

Flathead Coalition President David Hadden of Bigfork traveled to London last week, along with Katarina Hartwig, a member of the Canadian conservation group Wildsight, and consultant Bart Naylor of Virginia-based Capital Strategies.

Naylor helped arrange meetings with fund management firms that hold significant shares of BP stock.

"We met with 11 fund managers or their teams and had good, frank discussions about BP's Mist Mountain Coal Prpoject and the possible adverse impacts on our backyard," Hadden said in a press release.

The Mist Mountain coal-bed methane project originally included the Canadian headwaters of Montana's North Fork Flathead River.

But at a February meeting in Kalispell, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., announced that BP Canada had informed him that the Flathead had been excluded from the project by the British Columbia provincial government.

Baucus and other opponents of methane development in the Flathead took that to mean that BP Canada was making a long-term commitment to avoid development in the Flathead drainage. The company later indicated that it was not a permanent commitment.

"Because BP Canada had chosen to not deliver on promises of openness and transparency with respect to the Mist Mountain Project, we felt it necessary to travel to London to deliver our message directly to BP's board of directors" and its chief executive officer, Hartwig said.

The Montana group's efforts culminated April 17 at the BP annual general meeting at the ExCel Center in east London.

"We were able to ask questions of BP's full board and its CEO," Hadden said. "In addition, some 500 or so stockholders present at the meeting got to hear our concerns."

Hartwig said the audience "heard our concerns clearly."

Hadden added: "We received assurances from one executive board member that, in his words, 'You can consider your mission a success.'"

Hadden said the Flathead Coalition will follow up by pursuing discussions with BP Canada's leadership in Calgary, Alberta, and Washington, D.C., to understand how the company will proceed with more transparency and environmental accountability in pursuing resource development in southeastern British Columbia.

"It may be that the B.C. government may ultimately allow part of this project to proceed," Hartwig said. "If it gets to that stage we will need to be sure that everything leading up to that decision is done to protect our world-class water, wildlife and outdoor heritage."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com