We think western-Montana Democratic legislators are on the right track when it comes to helping carbon sequestration become a reality in the state.

An IR State Bureau story Tuesday cited four of them who have requested bills addressing the issue.

Sen.-elect Ron Erickson of Missoula, a retired UM environmental studies professor, wants to beef up rule making for the process of pumping waste carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels into the ground, including giving ownership of that space to the surface owners. He also is pushing a bill requiring coal companies to capture their carbon or offset it by buying carbon credits.

Rep. Betsy Hand of Missoula has a bill requiring "carbon neutral" building construction, Rep. Dan Villa of Anaconda is sponsoring legislation to look at offsetting carbon dioxide with less-polluting natural gas, and Sen. Dave Wanzenried of Missoula has a measure authorizing monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions.

Passage of such measures won't be easy in a Legislature that's almost evenly divided politically. As the Lee State Bureau pointed out, no lawmaker of either party from east of the Continental Divide, where Montana's coal mines, power plants and oil refineries are, have introduced legislation on this topic.

Still, carbon sequestration is the future. Montana already lags behind Wyoming in passing legislation necessary to make it happen, and there's no time like the present to begin catching up.