Public Power and Coal-Fired Energy
Bozeman Considers Coal Power, Controversy Continues in Montana
By Lucia Stewart, 8-27-07
The request to purchase city power from the Electric City Power, Inc., has now made it to the Bozeman commissioners’ agenda, after mixed reaction from other Montana cities.
Update: Mayor Krauss & other commissioners requested the vote not be placed on any future agenda. They had no interest in hearing ECP’s presentation, based on their environmental concerns and the financially risky nature of the proposal as it stood already.
Most of Helena’s commissioners are opposed to the purchase.
Missoula has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase, as they research the public savings from purchasing ECP power, a public non-profit power company. But, amidst questions over the the greenhouse gas impact of ECP’s plan for the new coal-fired Highwood Generating Station, Mayor John Engen has withdrawn his support and is asking the City Council Monday night to take the letter off the table. Missoula and Bozeman are both mayors’ climate protection agreement signatories.
A discussion of the long-term power supply agreement is on the Great Falls commission’s Tuesday agenda.
And Bozeman City Commissioners will be presented, for the first time, with a draft contract and a power-point presentation at the end of Monday’s agenda.
ECP must sign up most of its customers by Oct. 1 under state law that partially re-regulates Montana’s energy system.
“Montana is the wall socket of the West,” said Tim Gregori, from Southern Montana Electric (SME), about the state’s coal supply. “We have a load to meet, and we need a reliable base load.”
Gregori discussed the new Highwood Generating Station, constructed by SME and operated through the municipal utility system by ECP, at the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership conference on August 22.
“Transmission is a key factor in placement of new power generation station,” said Gregori. There are five key electric lines leading out of Great Falls area he showed on a Montana map crossed of red transmission lines.
He continued to discuss how energy is becoming a big issue in the Pacific Northwest. For one, California keeps purchasing power from distances as far as Montana. And much of the power generation in the Northwest is hydroelectric, a diminishing source of power as water flow decreases and as dam decommissions increase.
Read Greg Lemon’s article on Missoula’s debates on signing.
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No commissioner asked that a presentation be put on a future agenda. The Mayor referenced the discussions in Missoula, Great Falls and Helena, Missoula Mayor John Engen's letter, and Bob Raney's observations in declining to hear a proposal.