Governor to hold energy roundtable in Colstrip

HELENA — Gov. Steve Bullock will lead a discussion Tuesday on Colstrip and the state’s energy future at his fourth energy roundtable at Colstrip’s City Hall.

He is expected gather comment from energy stakeholders, business owners and industry and policy leaders statewide.

The meeting is 11 a.m., 12 Cherry St.

The future of the Colstrip power plant will be discussed. Changing market conditions for coal, new federal regulations and state laws under consideration to limit coal-fired power because of concerns over climate change have residents in the community of 2,300 concerned about Colstrip’s future.

It’s home to four coal-fired units that, combined, are the second-largest coal-fired plant in the West, and also the Rosebud Coal Mine, which supplies coal to the generating plant.

The coal-fired power plant and the mine together employ 730 people.

Recently, Pennsylvania-based Talen Energy, which owns a share of the Colstrip plant and operates the facility, said its role as operator is not economically viable and the plant's five owners will need a new manager by May 2018.

Colstrip Units 3 and 4 are owned by utilities in Washington and Oregon as well as South Dakota's Northwestern Energy, which is the largest gas and electric utility in Montana.

Ownership of Units 1 and 2 is split evenly between Talen and Puget Sound Energy.

Bullock met with three Colstrip executives earlier in May. And he is putting together a group to look into finding a buyer for the plant’s older units.

Bob Rowe, the chief executive of NorthWestern Energy, said his company is in no position to buy parts of the plant, as Bullock has suggested.

Kimberly Harris, Puget Sound Energy’s CEO, said her company was looking far ahead into the future as it considers whether it should decommission the plant’s two older units, which environmentalists say are outdated and responsible for spewing tons of carbon emissions.

If the Colstrip plant were to close, it could mean a loss of more than 7,100 jobs and siphon more $500 million in Montana wages, according to a study by the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Bullock has held a solar energy roundtable in Bozeman at Simms Fishing Products and toured the building’s new solar panel array. On May 18, he held his second energy roundtable discussion which focused on energy efficiency and conservation and toured a private home that recently benefited from weatherization.

On May 26, he had his third energy roundtable discussion which focused on wind energy and toured a wind energy development site near Fairfield.

Bullock is expected to release his plan for Montana’s energy future in June.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.