By the Missoulian State Bureau
HELENA - NorthWestern Energy's proposed power supply portfolio is bad for the environment and ignores energy conservation, a Montana Environmental Information Center official told the state Public Service Commission.
Patrick Judge, energy policy adviser for the environmental group, said it believes "Montanans can have a clean, affordable, reliable and efficient electricity system." The organization has worked with other groups to promote that vision.
"Unfortunately, we do not believe that either the original restructuring bill nor the current portfolio achieves that vision," Judge said.
He said the portfolio ignores "the most attractive energy source available to us" - energy conservation. A NorthWestern filing identified 98 megawatts of potential conservation in the 1,100-megawatt portfolio at a cost of $35 a megawatt hour. A NorthWestern witness suggested that was a cumulative conservation potential over a number of years.
The environmental group wants to see the portfolio opened up to the three wind power finalists not selected to expand the amount of wind power available, he said.
Judge called the portfolio's use of coal-fired generating plants "disturbing" because they produce more units of air pollution than any other generation technology.
He noted the Montana Constitution contains a right to a clean and healthful environment that was upheld by the Montana Supreme Court in 1999.
"Approval of the coal-fired portions of the proposed portfolio would be, in our view, not only poor public policy, but an invitation to judicial challenge," Judge said.
Scott Mendenhall of Whitehall, manager of Jefferson County Local Development, endorsed a wind power company, Navitas, of Minneapolis, that was not picked by NorthWestern Energy.
Navitas officials had said the company was seriously looking at Jefferson County, near the Golden Sunlight Mine, as a site for its wind turbine manufacturing plant that would employ 100 workers, Mendenhall said. The company also was looking at sites elsewhere in Montana.
"We were very surprised when we found out a higher priced bid was awarded," he said.
The economic development group's president, former House Speaker
Bob Marks, R-Clancy, agreed with Mendenhall, saying: "It's
a rare occasion when we get an industry that will come to our
county, and we have everything they need."