Montana Bills to change Renewable Portfolio Standards

Governor Schweitzer has signed bills in hopes to alter the laws behind Montana’s Renewable Portfolio Standards.

A Renewable Portfolio Standard says that a certain percentage of a state’s investor owned utilities (IOUs) must be produced through renewable energy practices. The state establishes these percentages and projects goals to attain them by. Montana’s goal is to increase renewable electric energy 15% by 2015.

Community Projects are considered eligible renewable energy sources that are locally owned and independent from the utility. Each project must be “less than or equal to 5 megawatts in total calculated nameplate capacity” (HB343). Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer signed a bill that increases the size of a community project from 5 to 25 megawatts and allows Northwestern Energy, Montana’s main IOU, to own a community project. He signed another that “extended a deadline from 2010 to 2012 for utilities to buy the minimum 50 megawatts of community-project power” (Dennison). This was done in hopes that Northwestern can help to attain their green energy goals.

Community projects were created in order for small independent projects to take hold and develop around the state. Northwestern has been arguing to pass this bill. They argue that independent projects are costly and develop slowly. Advocates say cheap green power needs to become available no matter who jump starts the process. Others insist that opening community projects to large industries like Northwestern hinder the small projects.

I agree with NorthWestern. A renewable energy monopoly is far from the resulting effects of including NorthWestern Energy in community projects. Consumers would rather continue using a solid and longstanding electrical utility rather than choosing from lots of smaller and newly developed efforts. Critics of the company and the bill say that both are out to destroy small-scale projects. I think that a larger industry simply has the greatest power to produce change. The overall goal of this effort is to create renewable-energy on a large scale as quickly as possible. If Governor Schweitzer’s bill pushes towards this goal, then so be it.

-Kelley Junco