Montana roundtable discusses ‘unleashing American energy’

Rising energy costs in Montana have led to increased electricity bills for residents, and dire consequences for some businesses, like a Butte company that shuttered a production facility this spring due to high electricity costs.

Facing staggering projections of electricity demand growth during the next decade, Gov. Greg Gianforte on Tuesday hosted a roundtable with energy sector stakeholders to discuss how the state can increase energy production, lower costs and meet the expected growth across the region.

“No matter who you are, we all depend on energy, to warm our homes, to run our businesses, to fuel our vehicles,” Gianforte said. “With this group, I know we can start a discussion to unleash American energy right here in Montana. The goal is to drive down costs, create more good paying jobs, cut red tape and deliver for the families and businesses and workers we all represent.”

The roundtable group was composed of energy suppliers, large energy consumers, public utility companies, transmission stakeholders, prospective business investors, and legislators.

Gianforte led off by citing a recent report from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council that says electricity demand in the western states is expected to grow 20% during the next decade, a growth rate almost twice what was forecast in 2022. It is also four times the historical growth rate from 2013 and 2022.

Based on “our own anecdotal evidence,” Gianforte said the forecast growth could be even higher, “if we had the supply.”

“It is accelerating. Make no mistake, we’re headed for a huge increase in energy demand,” he said.

 The governor asked representatives of the myriad parts of the energy sector to discuss the challenges they are facing in the coming years, as well as what makes Montana an attractive investment opportunity.

Reliability was a key theme in the discussions, for both large existing businesses in Montana and those considering new endeavors in the state.

John Bennion, a representative of the Washington Companies, said copper mining company Montana Resources in Butte is the second largest consumer of electricity in the state.

“We can stay open another 30 to 35 years with the copper reserves we have there. But in the last 40 years, the only thing that has shut us down, and it was for a three-year period, is the lack of affordable, reliable power,” Bennion said.

In addition, he described the company as “energy agnostic,” but in need of a reliable base load — which currently means relying on hydropower, coal, or gas.

“If we don’t have options to look at a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, that’s the biggest threat to keeping the lights on and the doors open,” he said.

Bennion pointed to some federal actions and rulemaking in recent years, including rules from the EPA limiting pollution associated with fossil fuel combustion, as a factor in driving up energy costs.

Gianforte also pointed out that the changing administration offered opportunities for Montana to boost its profile in the energy sphere.

“With the Biden-Harris administration fading into the background, there is an opportunity to reinvigorate our energy sector and increase the supply of affordable, reliable energy for consumers,” Gianforte said. “I make the commitment to the new Trump administration that Montana stands ready to do our part to expand energy production to help make America Affordable Again.”

Dave Sabey, president of Sabey Corporation and Sabey Data Centers, said that he considers the global landscape for places to make new investments, and “Montana could play in our industry or not.”

“We need predictable, long term relationships … When we join up with someone, we’re not going away for a long period of time,” Sabey said. “Montana exports lots of energy to other places in the country and creates nice, high paying jobs. The beauty about the data center space is those high paying jobs can come right back to state.”

Gianforte highlighted an announcement made by Northwestern Energy earlier Tuesday that the utility has signed a letter of intent to provide energy services to a developer planning new data centers in Montana. The project is expected to start with a minimum 50 megawatts in 2027 and grow to at least 250 megawatts within two years. 

Northwestern Energy CEO Brian Bird told the governor that regulations had limited, and continue limiting, the utility’s ability to serve large load customers like data centers.

“We have not been encouraged to build generation. Matter of fact, the way that it works today is, ‘Let’s make sure we’re checking everything Northwestern does.’ And it seems like that made sense in a period of time when you were dealing with 1% growth in your energy needs,” Bird said.

He added that in order to bring on additional customers like data centers, and even to meet the growing residential power demand in the state, “We’re probably going to have to look at that from a non-regulated basis.”

“Colstrip, you remember, at one point in time, was non-regulated. I think we’re going to have to do that. We can’t wait three to five years to get a decision to move forward with a plant,” Bird said. “In today’s day and age — when we’re not going to see 1% energy growth, we’re going to see it probably closer to 10% energy growth in this country – in Montana, we’re going to have to do things different.”

Industry members discussed growing investments in transmission infrastructure, such as the recently announced 3,000 megawatt transmission line between Bismarck and Colstrip, as essential for connecting Montana with external markets and maintaining the flow of power.

Two legislators — Sen. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, and Rep. Garry Parry, R-Colstrip, — joined the roundtable as the appointed chairpersons of the state Senate and House energy committees, respectively.

Parry told the group that his first priority in the upcoming legislative session is to establish an “energy authority or energy office,” that would help coordinate with private sector leaders to expand production, transmission and distribution.

“It has to be a fully coordinated effort. And I see it only, only being successful if the state is doing whatever we can,” Parry said.

Zolnikov talked briefly about the “slew” of energy-related policies he expected the Legislature to take up, including allowing utilities to bring projects to the Public Service Commission for pre-approval to speed up development timelines; working on threats to utilities such as wildfire liability, working to “fix and strengthen” the PSC, and supporting pro-computation policies.

Gianforte ended the discussion by reiterating his intention to help grow Montana’s energy sector and make reliable power affordable for everyone in the state.

“I’m with the government, but I’m here to stay out of your way,” Gianforte said.