Governor vetoes community solar bill
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Community solar projects received strong support from the Montana Legislature, but the governor has once again ruled them out with a swipe of his pen.
On Friday, Governor Greg Gianforte sent a letter to the Senate President and the Speaker of the House explaining his reasons for vetoing Montanans’ opportunity to build shared solar projects as outlined in Senate Bill 188. SB 188 mandates that corporate-owned utilities connect with shared solar energy projects and provide project subscribers with credit on their bills.
But the governor objected to giving the Montana Public Service Commission “broad discretion to set the specific credit rate.”
“Without clear statutory guidelines and guardrails, current and future PSC members could allow excessive credit rates, which consequentially would impose unreasonable costs on ratepayers,” Gianforte wrote in the June 13 letter.
The veto was a long time in coming, considering the Senate President signed SB 188 on April 21. Then the bill sat for six weeks until the Speaker signed the bill on June 2. According to the Montana Legislature Bill Tracker, Gianforte vetoed the bill on June 9 but waited a few more days before sending the letter with his reasons.
Solar energy supporters were disappointed with the governor’s action.
“We’ve been monitoring it since the session ended, waiting for the speaker to sign it, wondering what’s going on. Then (the letter was sent) the last day the governor could veto it - he has 10 days,” said Derek Goldman, Northwest Energy Coalition policy associate. “It’s a bummer in light of the fact that NorthWestern Energy has a rate case this week before the PSC asking for another double-digit increase.”
Goldman said shared solar energy projects could provide some relief for Montanans forced to pay escalating corporate utility rates. With this week’s PCS rate case, NorthWestern Energy wants customers to pick up the tab for a 175-megawatt natural gas plant the company recently built in Laurel, arguing it is necessary for reliable and affordable power supply. Before that, in 2023, NorthWestern Energy raised electric rates approximately 28%.
Sponsored by Sen. Chris Pope, D-Bozeman, SB 188 would allow businesses or other entities to build large solar arrays and sell panels or a portion of the energy to households and businesses that can’t install their own solar panels for a variety of reasons. It would operate similar to rural electric cooperatives, some of which already have shared solar, including both Missoula Electric co-ops and the Ravalli Electric Co-op.
“If you don’t have south-facing roofs or your roof is shaded, the city of Missoula or Missoula County public schools could build a shared solar project and get subscribers and you’d get a credit on your bill. It would free up more energy that NorthWestern generates,” Goldman said.
Forty-four other states, including Washington and Oregon, already allow community solar projects. For example, a community solar project near the Portland airport dedicates 60% of the energy production to 180 low-income households. A participant subscribing to 3.5 kilowatts of solar generation from the project can expect a 40-50% savings on energy bills. Even Alaska now allows community solar projects.
During the 2025 Legislature, SB 188 had a huge amount of citizen support and passed the Senate with a large majority. The House passed the bill by a vote of 54-43 after amending the bill to require solar project owners to pay connection costs to either NorthWestern Energy or Montana-Dakota Utilities for the use of their lines. The amended bill passed the Senate 46-4.
This wasn’t the first time a shared solar bill has been introduced. Pope sponsored one in 2023, and shared solar projects were part of the 2017 Solar Jobs and Energy Freedom Act, HB 504.
Bradley Van Wert, Montana Renewable Energy Association board president, has backed all those bills as they struggled to overcome opposition from NorthWestern Energy lobbyists. He said he considered this to be the strongest bill so far.
“(In 2017), the education wasn’t there for the lawmakers, but the people were interested and curious. All the previous bills have moved the ball for the legislators. Those who’ve had concerns over the years now understand the issue. They understand they aren’t voting on an environmental issue - they understood this was an economic opportunity for our state,” Van Wert said. “So when the governor talks about “all-of-the-above” and “Montana’s open for business,” this veto flies in the face of that.”
The governor’s letter starts with a sentence saying “we’ve embraced an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach to energy policy that encourages innovation instead of government mandates to increase the supply of affordable, reliable energy.”
The Legislature has the opportunity to override a veto if at least 100 legislators voted in favor of the bill before it was vetoed. Based upon the House vote and the Senate vote after the bill was amended, SB 188 met that threshold with no votes to spare. So solar energy supporters are waiting for the Secretary of State to poll legislators on the veto. If two-thirds vote in favor of an override, SB 188 will become law. But some legislators don't respond within the 30-day window.
“It’s a challenging process, no matter what. There’s the possibility of overriding the veto, but it’s a difficult process. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have confidence in the bill,” Van Wert said.
The process worked for a different bill on Friday, when the Montana Legislature had enough votes to override the governor’s veto of HB 368, which redirects $2 million a year in coal severance tax revenue from the state general fund to a new state account. That money can be used to help Colstrip pay for a water system if the coal-fired power plants end up closing.
In his letter explaining his veto of HB 368, Gianforte used the same wording that he used in the letter for SB 188, saying the bills didn’t have “appropriate sideboards and guardrails.”
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.