Electric utility regulators in Montana are backing a bill that would do away with a code they say is unnecessarily restrictive in requiring electric utilities to draw energy from small, community owned renewables like wind or solar.
Senate Bill 237 sponsor Republican Sen. Doug Kary of Billings told the Senate Energy and Telecommunications committee Thursday that it’s impossible for electric utilities to find projects that meet the Community Renewable Energy Projects, or CREPs, requirements.
“This is a process that’s set to fail,” Kary said.
Among the four people to speak in favor of Senate Bill 237 was a lawyer for ratepayer advocate Montana Consumer Counsel, who said the CREPs code favors resources of a certain size that may not be the cheapest option available.
Montana’s largest utility, NorthWestern Energy, has never met the minimum requirements for CREPs. Montana Public Service Commission analyst Robin Arnold testified that regulators granted NorthWestern waivers for the CREP requirements because the code isn’t workable.
“The commission has consistently found that they have taken all reasonable steps but fell short for reasons outside of their control,” Arnold said.
The lone voice against HB 237 was Anne Hedges with advocacy group Montana Environmental Information Center, which successfully sued the PSC and NorthWestern over the waivers regulators granted the utility.
“I’m not asking you to keep this law in place. I think it is clear that it’s not gonna happen. But what I am asking you is, at the very end of this, it’s the retroactive applicability. I’d say let the Montana Supreme Court decide if the waivers that NorthWestern requested in 2015 and 2016 were legal,” Hedges said.
The Senate Energy and Telecommunications committee considered another CREPs code bill Tuesday. Democratic Sen. Janet Ellis of Helena sponsored Senate Bill 197, which aims to make the CREP requirements more flexible and attract out of state investment by striking the requirement that Montana residents hold at least 50% interest in a resource.
Lawmakers haven’t taken action yet on either proposal.
A bill to remove CREP requirements also came before the state legislature in 2017 but was vetoed by former Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. Current Gov. Greg Gianforte is the first Republican to serve in that office for 16 years.
