Montana moving to top ranks in renewable energy, Gov. Brian Schweitzer tells Harvesting Clean Energy Conference

With some of the greatest renewable energy resources in the world, Montana is positioning to become a major clean energy producer, Governor Brian Schweitzer told the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference Jan. 26 in Billings, Montana.

“We will build our energy future around the soil, sun, wind and warm earth,”
Schweitzer told a packed conference keynoter.

The Harvesting Clean Energy Conference ran from Jan 25-27, drawing 520 people from 25 states to blustery Billings for the Northwest’s premier annual agricultural energy event.  Dozens of speakers presented the latest in wind power, sustainable biofuels, energy efficiency, carbon opportunities and rural clean energy development strategies.

Schweitzer covered the range of Montana clean energy opportunities, accompanied by his own slide show. Montana wind resources rank among the best on Earth, and the area around the volcanic Yellowstone Basin is one of its hottest spots in the world, Schweitzer noted.  The state also has huge potentials to produce advanced biofuels from new processes that employ woody feedstocks. 

Using a map of 50 Montana wind power developments at various stages, the governor said Montana is increasing its wind portfolio at the fastest rate in the nation.  The slide also showed routes for the new transmission lines vital to exporting Montana’s wind production out of state.  Two are under construction, including one reaching north into Canada. 

The governor noted a key way to overcome one of wind power’s challenges, its variability.

“The wind doesn’t blow all the time.  I didn’t know that growing up in the Judith Basin,” he kidded, drawing a laugh from the crowd.

“I’ve got a word for the future, and those who get it will own the economy for the next 100 years – batteries,” Schweitzer said. With battery storage, “We could run this country on renewable energy.”

Schweitzer connected that opportunity to the emergence of plug-in vehicles with large batteries that could be charged by renewables and ship the energy back to the grid.  The rescue package for Detroit automakers should compel them to “build the cars of the future, providing incentives for plug-in hybrid vehicles.”

The governor noted the immense potential of Montana to produce energy from deep, hot geothermal formations.  But, he added, opportunities also present themselves closer to the surface, just a few feet below the ground  where steady temperatures can provide heat in the winter and cool in the summer.

Schweitzer pointed out a unique opportunity in Butte, where old copper mining tunnels beneath the city have now filled with 80 degree water.  By employing that heat supplemented with a deep geothermal well, Butte could become “the first zero-carbon city in the world … a city that runs on just hot water.”

He related his vision for Butte.  In the copper boom days of the late 19th century when Butte was home to some of the world’s richest individuals, the city gained a fleet of magnificent buildings, the governor explained.  They could be refurbished and powered by totally clean energy, giving Butte an edge in attracting cutting edge businesses seeking to zero out their carbon profile.

“One of the biggest challenges we face in the world is greenhouse gases and climate change,” the governor noted.

Moving to biofuels, Schweitzer noted that “corn ethanol is a great entrée, but only a start.”  Montana’s greatest opportunity is biomass, particularly from wood chips, he added.  The state’s pine beetle ravaged forests could supply this biomass, he said.

Montana has become a national leader in exploiting another energy resource, the governor said, energy efficiency.

“The most important energy is the energy we don’t use,” he said.

Schweitzer ordered the most aggressive standard for state fleets in the nation, 32 mpg by 2010.  It will be reached early, by this March,  “It’s just an attitude.”

The governor also has ordered a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption in state buildings by 2010.  The plan was used as a model for President Obama’s energy agenda, but it had to go through the mill of resistant state bureaucrats first.

“I call them the B team because they say, ‘We’ll be here when you come and we’ll be here when you go,’”  Schweitzer related. 

The Montana political climate overall is moving in the direction of clean energy, the governor noted.  In 2005 when legislation was proposed to set a 15 percent share for new renewable energy in the Montana power market, “You’d have thought we’d have proposed to end the state as we knew it.”  But the legislation eventually passed, helping drive new wind generation in Montana.

The same cycle took place again in 2007 with a proposal to decrease property taxes on wind turbines, transmission and manufacturing plants.  “It took us four attempts and a special session, but we did it..  So things are changing in Montana.”

Schweitzer called out “the B team that says, ‘We don’t think we can power the nation with renewable energy anytime soon’.”

“The future of the world is in renewables and you are the leaders,” the governor told the conference. “Do not allow the B team to cut you short.”