Missoula County is nearing final approval of the Green Power program

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) With clean electricity on its mind, Missoula County signed a contract with a law firm last week to complete the final steps of creating a green energy program before taking the proposal to the Montana Public Utilities Commission for final approval.

This effort, which also includes the cities of Missoula and Bozeman, would be Montana’s first green tariff and a major step toward achieving the tri-government’s goal of achieving 100% clean electricity in the coming years.

“The agreement is that these three governments will agree to purchase a certain amount of electricity,” Commissioner Josh Slotnick said. “It’s not a done deal. This still needs to be reported to the PSC. But we have made amazing progress. There are versions of this in the West, but there is nothing like this in the country.”

The proposal has been in the works since January 2021 and is closely tied to the stated goal of achieving 100% clean electricity by 2030. This effort reached a milestone last November when both the City and County of Missoula approved a term sheet providing guidance for their NorthWestern Energia contract.

Under current proposals, a new solar or wind energy project would be built for the green energy program. It would also be large enough to “provide clean electricity to NorthWestern Energy’s commercial customers and hundreds of residential customers.”

The size of the project will be determined by how much energy participants are willing to purchase over the life of the program, which is approximately 25 years. Individual customers will have the opportunity to subscribe to local governments.

“Not only will we have access to this power, but it will be made available to other commercial and industrial subscribers as well as community members,” said Karen Hughes, the county’s director of planning, development and sustainability. “The next thing was working with the Public Service Commission.”

To accomplish this, the county last week signed an agreement with the Helena-based UDA Law Firm. The company will represent participants as they prepare to submit the program to the PSC for final adoption.

“The county and communities negotiated these documents with NorthWestern,” Hughes said. “We are close to an agreement, which means we need to use legal advice to make sure everything is in order.”

Supporters of the Green Power program say that “green tariffs” are an increasingly common tool used by customers of regulated companies to purchase energy from clean sources. But there is no such program in Montana.

In 2019, the PSC directed NorthWestern to investigate the feasibility of developing a green tariff. The order was part of a settlement between the utility and several other groups, including Walmart, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the Montana Consumer Council.

Once the PSC has approved the current Green Energy Program, project leaders will solicit proposals for a new renewable energy project. Local governments would first have access to clean electricity, but other subscribers would also have the opportunity to join.

“Until they’re final, they’re not final,” Hughes said. “I expect these will be available for public review and comment at the end of June, and I hope they will be approved so we can continue working. We worked together quite consistently throughout the process. We’ve made progress and I think we’re one step away from putting it all together.”