We’re asking NorthWestern Energy to transition to clean and affordable energy.
Stay tuned for opportunities to comment on NorthWestern Energy’s Intergrated Resource Plan in January and February (2023) at the Montana Public Service Commission. To learn when you can comment, sign up for our email alerts.
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Thank you to the more than 1,000 Montanans who have signed our letter to NorthWestern Energy's Board of Directors and corporate leadership!
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NorthWestern Energy recently released a “net-zero” plan. Unfortunately, it does little to protect MT families from increasing energy costs and climate instability. We sent a letter to their leadership asking them to change course. Here are the key points. The full letter is below.
What we need Northwestern Energy to do now:
Provide all customers with 100% clean, renewable electricity by 2030.
Immediately prioritize big investments in proven renewable energy resources such as solar and wind, with storage. Increase their commitment to energy conservation. Cancel their plans for new fossil-fuel infrastructure.
Pay $2.5 million to low-income and Tribal energy assistance programs that a state district court ruled was required for not complying with Montana’s Community Renewable Energy Program.
What’s wrong with their “net-zero” plan?
It builds fossil-fuel infrastructure through 2035.
There’s no investment in wind and solar energy.
It costs us jobs and puts Montana behind our neighbors in developing a renewable energy economy.
It looks to nuclear energy after 2035 with no details on handling waste or safety issues.
There are no benchmarks.
Given the huge impact of energy emissions on our changing climate, Northwestern has a unique responsibility—and opportunity—to help protect all of our families.
Read the full letter below:
TO: NorthWestern Energy’s Board of Directors; Mr. Bob Rowe, CEO; Mr. Brian Bird, Chief Operating Officer; and Mr. John Hines, VP of Supply and MT Government Affairs
FROM: Families for a Livable Climate, Montana parents and caregivers, and other supporters
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Dear NorthWestern Energy Directors, Mr. Rowe, Mr. Bird, and Mr. Hines;
We are writing on behalf of our families and our children, and the families and children whom some of us serve, to implore you to take bold action now in your operations and do your part in addressing the climate crisis, and ensuring a secure future for Montana families.
First, we call on you to commit to providing 100% clean electricity to all of your customers by 2030, in line with commitments made by Missoula, Helena and Bozeman, and we ask that you create measurable benchmarks that outline how you will do it.
Second, to accomplish this goal, we ask you to immediately prioritize big investments in proven renewable energy resources, solar and wind and energy storage, increase your commitment to energy conservation and energy efficiency, and cancel your plans for new fossil-fuel infrastructure.
Third, we also urge you to pay the $2.5 million to low income and Tribal energy assistance programs that a state district court ruled was required for your failure to comply with Montana’s Community Renewable Energy Program.
Like many Montanans, we were curious and hopeful when we received your recently released “Net Zero by 2050” plan. The wind turbines on the cover and back looked promising, but when we dug into your numbers, we had major concerns about the plan when weighed against the facts of what’s required for a safe world for our families, and the families we serve. The following elements of your plan are of grave concern to us:
NorthWestern’s plan outlines the company’s intent to build fossil-fuel infrastructure through 2035, and not retire other fossil-fuel infrastructure until 2040 or later, despite global scientific consensus saying that all sectors must decarbonize as rapidly as possible. In fact, unless global greenhouse gas emissions peak before 2025, we will have no chance at keeping warming to 1.5 °C. We are also concerned that this plan does not include a commitment to help the cities of Missoula, Bozeman, and Helena reach their community-wide goals to move to 100% clean electricity by 2030.
Beyond 2035, the plan looks to “hydro, pumped storage, geothermal, small modular nuclear reactors or hydrogen fueled generation.” While we appreciate the inclusion of pumped storage and geothermal, you offer no benchmarks. You also do not address the serious consequences of nuclear energy. How will you handle nuclear waste? How will you handle nuclear security? Nor do you discuss the type of hydrogen you will employ, which is extremely important for climate impacts, or the odds of hydrogen being scalable and affordable by 2035.
Despite the marketing choice to feature wind turbines throughout the publication, we were shocked that you have no plans to increase investment in wind power, nor do you propose further investment in solar energy. In fact, the report repeatedly discounts these sources. While the rest of the world develops these areas of their economies and job markets, these key solutions were strikingly missing in your plan. Given Montana’s potential, this is truly startling:
According to the 2021 “Montana Wind Jobs” report from Renewables Northwest, Montana, “Montana ranked 48th out of the 50 states for the number of jobs in wind energy production, despite being 5th in the nation for land-based wind potential…North Dakota has twenty times more jobs in wind energy, compared to Montana.” North Dakota has 1,764 wind jobs compared to Montana’s 86.
Looking at data from the National Solar Jobs Census and U.S. Energy and Employment Report, Montana ranks 25th in the nation for solar potential, and yet, as of 2020, we ranked 49th in total solar jobs, with only around 300 in the state. While markets in other states are growing, Montana is idling with a large amount of untapped potential. Without investment and support, Montanans will be left behind as this booming industry offers quality careers in neighboring states in our region and across the nation.
Lastly, your plan is framed on a very outdated (and globally rejected) goal of holding global warming to 2 °C. At COP 26 in Glasgow last fall: Countries reaffirmed the Paris Agreement goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C. . . They recognized that the impacts of climate change will be much lower at a temperature increase of 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C. (UN COP 26 Report)
According to the Montana Climate Assessment, Montana is warming more rapidly than the global average, and depending on emissions we will face very different futures. As Steven Running, emeritus regents professor of global ecology at the University of Montana and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, said in his Mar 13, 2022, op-ed for the Helena Independent Record:
“The difference in climate disruption and impacts from 1.5 deg to 2.0 deg is huge, and clearly quantified in the recent IPCC reports. In Montana, going from 1.5 C of global warming to 2 C means a breakdown of our forest and river ecosystems, with a longer, drier fire season, more megafires, and the death of our cold-water fisheries. It means our winter sports, skiing, snowmobiling etc will be minimal. The result will be a precipitous decline in our prime economic industries, agriculture and tourism.”
Montana families will increasingly face serious, adverse health and mental health impacts from worsening climate change. According to the 2021 Climate Change and Human Health in Montana report:
Three aspects of projected climate change are of greatest concern for human health in Montana: 1) increased summer temperatures and periods of extreme heat, with many days over 90F (32C); 2) reduced air quality from smoke, as wildfires will increase in size and frequency in the coming decades; and 3) more unexpected climate-related weather events (i.e. climate surprises), including rapid spring snowmelt and flooding, severe summer drought, and more extreme storms.
According to the other key findings:
Young children, people over 65 years old, and expectant mothers will be at highest risk, with those individuals struggling with chronic health conditions and poverty at even greater risk of adverse impacts.
Worsening climate change will threaten food security for Montana families as well with summer droughts posing “challenges to local agriculture, resulting in decreased food availability and nutritional quality, and to the safety and availability of public and private water supplies, especially for individuals and communities relying on surface water and shallow groundwater.”
For years, Montanans have been asking your company’s leadership to make investments in clean energy in order to curb energy costs for our families, and address the climate crisis. We simply cannot afford the enormous financial and health impacts of worsening climate change. We need all companies that serve Montana families to be part of the solution, and help bring about systemic change.
Your employees’ commitment to Montana communities is apparent. We appreciate your competent and kind staff who answer service calls, and respond to outages. We appreciate your financial support of nonprofit efforts in our communities.
We also appreciate that the energy transition is not easy. Strong leadership is needed to meet this moment. Given the huge impact of energy emissions on our changing climate, you have a unique responsibility, and opportunity, to help mitigate severe climate risks, and help protect all of our families, present and future.
As Directors and Leaders of NorthWestern Energy, you are presumably dedicated to your company’s motto, "delivering a bright future." But as we reflect on the company’s” Net Zero by 2050” plan, and its proposed fossil fuel investments, lack of measurable benchmarks, and disregard for solar and wind, we have to wonder: What will a "bright future" look like, and how will we get there?
We ask that you protect our right to a clean and healthful environment. We urge you to make a meaningful plan now that is in line with climate science, and supports the bold 100% clean electricity commitments made by Missoula, Bozeman and Helena, to help ensure a livable future for Montana families, our communities, and our world. We demand that you to step up and meet the challenge we all face with courage, creativity, and the leadership Montana families and our futures deserve.