It’s nice to see Governor Bullock delegating some big responsibilities. It’s an election year, you know. He must be very busy. And, in terms of addressing climate change policy for our state, I couldn’t think of a better person to hand that over to than Senator Duane Ankney. Bullock’s advisory council line-up is great if the goal is to ensure that the federal government will have to step in to mandate how we will meet our obligations for carbon reduction under the Clean Power Plan. Or maybe he just wants…

According to the Surface Transportation Board (STB), coal miners are going to lose their job if the proposed Otter Creek mine and Tongue River Railroad (TRR) are built. Seems counterintuitive doesn’t it? I’ll explain shortly but before I get started let’s get some things out of the way in the spirit of full disclosure. Am I the right messenger on this? Probably not but no one else seems to want to dive into these waters so here it goes. You all know that I am personally opposed to…

Take 12 minutes out of your day and watch one of the most compelling short films I have ever seen. Directed by Carly Calhoun and Sam Despeaux.    

I have worked on a pond or two, they were by search pond, instead of turning left into search pond you keep going straight. The contractor was out of Washington and when I asked him if these would ever leak, he said “well eventually ,” I laughed it off and shook my head.  I didn’t know then what they were for but none of the employees of the company would not even go near the ponds that were all ready filled. The forms of energy have changed over…

On the very last day of 2013 Mike Dennison wrote a story for the Billings Gazette about the sale of Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) hydroelectric dams in Montana to Northwestern Energy. It was a wonky energy piece that most people might skip over. However, the article had a very interesting piece of information. In documents filed with the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC), NorthWestern Energy made it abundantly clear that they did not want to buy PPL’s coal fired power plants at Colstrip. Not only did they not…

“We don’t have a right to ask whether we’re going to succeed or not. The only question we have a right to ask is ‘what’s the right thing to do? What does this earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it?’” Wendell Berry. If you want to understand the history and politics of coal in Montana you should read Last Stand At Rosebud Creek by Michael Parfit.  The book is about coal. It is about people. It is about power. It is a…