The following opinion column was authored by Scott Sweeney. Scott Sweeney is a Fergus County rancher and retired general manager of Fergus Electric Cooperative. He is also a member of Northern Plains Resource Council, a grassroots conservation and family agriculture nonprofit.
I’m a fourth-generation rancher just outside of Lewistown, and I feel a deep connection to this place. Now that I’ve retired from Fergus Electric Cooperative where I served as general manager, I spend my days walking the same fields and fence lines as my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Because they were careful stewards of this property, I’m able to continue raising cattle and living close to the land I love. I honor that debt by being a good steward myself, hoping to leave this place in good shape for future generations. While protecting clean air, water, and working landscapes is essential, part of good stewardship is also acting responsibly about finances. Unspoiled resources do our children and grandchildren little good if they are so saddled with debt or excessive expenses that they can’t afford to live here.
The obligation to future generations is why I worked hard to support Senate Bill 188, the Montana Solar Shares Act, through the Montana Legislature this past session. The bill, which passed with strong bipartisan support in both the Montana House and Senate, was created to provide financial relief to Montanans experiencing ever-increasing energy bills from NorthWestern Energy, the state’s largest monopoly utility.
NorthWestern was one of the bill’s only opponents and, sadly, Gov. Gianforte sided with the energy corporation by vetoing SB 188. This decision was a huge missed opportunity that disregards the 100 Republican and Democratic legislators who voted for the bill (almost 70% of the legislature). The veto also disregards Montana’s captive energy customers who are trapped buying overpriced energy from NorthWestern, given the corporation’s refusal to invest in more modern and affordable energy sources like solar.
The Solar Shares Act would have created a program where multiple households, buildings, or businesses could voluntarily purchase individual shares of a larger collectively-owned solar array, giving more people access to solar’s cost-saving benefits. Customers who chose to participate would have received a credit on their power bill based on the energy generated from their share of the solar array. The bill was created for folks who can’t currently take advantage of solar’s lower costs for a number of reasons: because their property isn’t suitable, they rent, or they simply can’t afford the upfront costs of investing in solar.
We know this program works because 24 other states have adopted it, and nine co-ops in Montana already have similar programs in place. During my tenure managing Fergus Electric Cooperative, we implemented a Solar Shares program. Once it was up and running, many of our co-op members wanted to participate, and we quickly sold all the shares.
It’s demoralizing to see one out-of-state corporation, NorthWestern Energy, have so much influence over Montana policy. Gov. Gianforte said his veto was because the bill didn’t provide enough detail for the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) to properly set rates for this relatively small program. So, we can trust the PSC to set rates for hundreds of thousands of Montanans stuck buying power from monopoly utilities, but we can’t trust it to set rates for a small solar program? I am confused.
I can’t know what Gov. Gianforte’s true motives were for this veto, but I do know the people who benefit from his decision are NorthWestern’s executives and shareholders. I also know that Montana families facing economic challenges and rising energy bills lost an avenue to save money.
Gov. Gianforte missed an opportunity to be a better fiscal steward, but we all lost the opportunity to be better stewards of our air, land, and water by giving non-polluting energy sources a chance. As a rancher, I’ve seen firsthand how unpredictable and damaging this weird, changing weather can be to our agriculture industry and beyond. Utilizing clean, non-polluting energy is one of the ways to restore stability to our weather patterns. Our kids and grandkids need us all to be better leaders and better stewards.
Originally published here
