GILLETTE -- Amid accusations that Gov. Dave Freudenthal is pressuring a citizens board to back off from tightening controls over the coal-bed methane industry, the governor is questioning whether the Environmental Quality Council ought to receive direct funding for an independent staff.

Freudenthal wrote a Dec. 15 letter to the incoming chairmen of the Joint Appropriations Committee, Sen. Philip Nicholas, R-Laramie, and Rep. Frank Philp, R-Shoshoni, and suggested that the Environmental Quality Act never intended for direct staff funding for the council.

Instead, Freudenthal said, it appeared to him that staff and operational support was intended to come from the Department of Environmental Quality's resources.

But the timing is suspect, said Mark Gordon, chairman of the seven-member EQC. The same week, the EQC was chastised by the governor's office for scheduling a January hearing on a rulemaking that could result in more stringent controls over water produced from coal-bed methane wells.

Freudenthal and Attorney General Pat Crank, maintained that their only concern was whether there was enough legal standing to move forward with rulemaking. They don't believe there is.

Although the timing of Freudenthal's letter might give the appearance that it's intended to punish the EQC, Gordon said he's giving the governor the benefit of the doubt, and would rather believe it is an unrelated budgetary concern.

"I don't know how to respond. I don't want to take it as a political issue, because I'm not sure it is," Gordon said Friday. "It is difficult timing. I think we have reasonably good relationship with the governor, and it is an awkward time."

Freudenthal told the Star-Tribune that it's fair to question the timing of his letter to the Joint Appropriations Committee. However, if anyone should construe that his intent is to punish the EQC for disagreeing with his position on the coal-bed methane water issue, they're "spending too much time looking for spooks in the night."

"The issue really revolves around the fact that they (the EQC) always want more staff. My question is, how did they end up with a separate budget? I shouldn't have to fund both the agency and the staff that's there," Freudenthal said.

According to Freudenthal's letter, the EQC is authorized to employ three people and appropriated about $600,000 for secretarial assistance, supplies and other operational expenses. The matter was not addressed in Freudenthal's original budget request, he said, but was only brought to his attention afterward when Gordon suggested to him that the EQC needed more resources.

"One way or another they (the EQC) are going to need more help in some form," Freudenthal said, adding that it might be more appropriate for those resources to come from DEQ's budget.

When the EQC decided to begin rulemaking this year regarding coal-bed methane water, it essentially gave a certain level of credence to a group that had sided squarely against the stance of Freudenthal's administration on the issue. The rulemaking was petitioned to the council by the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a landowner group based in northeast Wyoming.

The state of Wyoming filed suit against Montana after its environmental regulatory authority imposed rules that would require Wyoming's coal-bed methane industry to prevent its by-product water from entering Montana. Limiting the volume of water produced from coal-bed methane wells could result in higher production expenses or lower production volumes, according to the industry.

This year, the Powder River Basin Resource Council joined the state of Montana in that lawsuit and suggested that Wyoming state government is so enamored with the energy industry that its members must look to Montana to protect their ranchlands.

NewsTracker

* Last we knew: The Wyoming Environmental Quality Council was chastised by the governor's office last week for scheduling a January hearing on proposed rules that could result in more stringent controls over water produced from coal-bed methane wells

* The latest: Freudenthal said he doesn't believe the Environmental Quality Act ever intended for direct staff funding for the council.

* What's next: The EQC plans to proceed with the rulemaking in hearings scheduled for Jan. 17-18 at city hall in Cheyenne.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 682-3388 or dustin.bleizeffer@casperstartribune.net.