NEWS

Dam hydroelectric bill clears hurdle in House

Phil Drake
pdrake@greatfallstribune.com

Montana’s federal lawmakers this week took a bow over the passage of legislation in the House to aid in the completion of two hydroelectric facilities in Montana.

The legislation provides for a six-year extension of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the Gibson Dam Hydro Project near Augusta and the three-year extension of FERC license for Clark Canyon Dam Hydro Project in Dillon, Montana Republicans Rep. Ryan Zinke and Sen. Steve Daines said.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., joined Daines in introducing both bills in the Senate on April 28, Daines said. And Zinke introduced the bills in the House, also in April.

The bills are awaiting a vote in the Senate and are now in the Energy Policy Modernization Act, a Daines spokeswoman said.

According to the lawmakers, the Gibson Dam project will create 15 to 25 jobs and up to $5 million in wages during construction; provide 50 to 100 years of tax revenues for Teton and Lewis and Clark counties, averaging $500,000 annually per county; reduce more than 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year; strengthen the irrigation component of the Gibson Dam; result in $1 million in local purchases over two years; and the Sun River Electric Cooperative will receive more than $200,000 per year in a “wheeling fee.”

Constantine Papadakis, of Gibson Hydroelectric said, “This legislation is an important step forward for the Gibson Dam hydroelectric project and is consistent with congressional policy in ensuring that all federally owned dams are retrofitted to create clean, renewable hydropower.”

Gibson Dam blocks the Sun River about 15 miles northwest of Augusta. The dam has never produced energy, even though it was originally designed to do so.

The Clark Canyon Dam project will create 30 to 40 jobs during construction and one to two full-time jobs for the next 50 years; reduce more than 18,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year; power to 1,200 homes annually; produce $611,000 in state and federal taxes over the first five years of operation and produce $37,000 in property tax contributions over the first five years, the lawmakers said.

Zinke criticized the hurdles the projects had to clear.

“It is ridiculous that it takes an act of Congress — multiple acts of Congress — to build eco-friendly infrastructure projects that would deliver affordable and reliable electricity to residents in Montana and Idaho,” he said via email Tuesday. “While unelected bureaucrats sit in their offices in comfortable government jobs, residents near the Sun River and Beaverhead River are stuck in limbo, not knowing if good-paying jobs will come through, or if they will see some relief in energy prices.”