Aug 26 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News -
Mike Dennison Billings Gazette,
Several prominent
"The biggest thing for
Montanans is this is going to create jobs," said Jackie Boyle, the
Some coalition members also said
Tuesday that the state's largest utility, NorthWestern
Energy, is putting out mixed messages on cap-and-trade legislation.
Boyle said the groups aren't
trying to pick a fight with NWE, which they believe supports clean-energy
development. But the company's August newsletter included a warning that the
cap-and-trade bill passed in June by the U.S. House would increase household
customers' bills by $220 a year. Boyle said that focuses only on potential
negative aspects of clean-energy legislation. "What is confusing to us,
and the public, is where exactly is NorthWestern's
position?" she said. "Are they against (the House bill), or
against clean-energy legislation?"
NorthWestern
spokeswoman Claudia Rapkoch said the utility, which
has 320,000 electric and natural-gas customers in
The cap-and-trade bill passed by
the U.S. House sets a national limit on atmospheric greenhouse gases, which
cause climate change. It then distributes credits, or allowances, to industries
that emit these gases, other related industries and lower-income households.
The industries either must reduce
their emissions or buy credits from other holders, to meet or stay under the
caps.
The House bill is now before the
U.S. Senate, which is expected to write a much different clean-energy bill, but
one that may pursue the same principles.
NorthWestern has
said it won't get enough allowances under the House bill, forcing it to buy
allowances and thus increase its costs, which would be passed on to customers
in the form of higher energy bills. NorthWestern gets
a substantial amount of its power from coal-fired power plants, which are big
emitters of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas.
Boyle and other members of the
coalition acknowledged Tuesday that a cap-and-trade bill would increase the
cost of carbon-based energy.
But they said if nothing is done
to address global warming and foster more renewable, clean power and energy
conservation, Montanans will be worse off, paying still higher prices for energy
and suffering the effects of a hotter, drier climate.
"Clean-energy legislation
would stabilize (energy prices) and make them sustainable in the long
run," said Chuck Magraw, a
Magraw said
cap-and-trade legislation also generates revenue that would help lower-income
households offset some price increases, as well as fund research to develop
carbon-capture technology, which could enable development of
Boyle said the groups, which
include Montana Audubon and Montana Wildlife Federation, have been emphasizing
to Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus that Montanans support
clean-energy legislation.
Republican Denny Rehberg,
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