Viewpoint: Green Power Program a Missoula – and Montana – milestone
Bryan von Lossberg
Missoula City Council and the County Commission approved an important step forward on Dec. 11 to advance a clean energy future for our community. It’s a milestone worth celebrating. Their unanimous support for adoption of a Green Power Program term sheet with NorthWestern Energy — closely following our partner Bozeman’s approval of the same — moves us a step closer to bringing a new, utility-scale renewable energy source onto the grid.
That source will meet the “additionality” test, meaning it will lead to a new, large-scale solar or wind facility, possibly with battery storage, that would not exist otherwise, and is only possible thanks to this effort and the trailblazing work of the lead communities in partnership with the utility. It is a program to be proud of. It paves the way for commercial and residential customers to voluntarily purchase renewable energy through their existing utility bills without complex negotiations and administration. And it’s innovative in the way it navigates the utility landscape — and its many regulatory limitations — relative to complex policy issues like cost shifting, market pricing, and availability to community customers in addition to city and county operations.
Similar green power programs operate in states across the U.S., from coast to coast and north to south, but none currently exist in Montana. We can and should act with urgency and resolve to advance this program.
The Green Power Program also highlights a simple business truth: It’s good business to provide a product that reflects your customers’ values and that a large part of your customer base wants and will pay a fair price for. That truth has eluded this partnership at times, and the term sheet’s approval is an appropriate opportunity to re-center it. It took too long to get to this approval, and a greater sense of urgency and prioritization should characterize the subsequent phases of this program.
For years council and the commissioners have listened to and worked with the community in this challenging area around climate and energy and have collaborated to set explicit and ambitious goals. The Green Power Program is a critical part of meeting those goals and keeping our commitments. It’s a difference maker. It moves the needle.
Alone, it’s not enough, but it’s an important tool alongside many other efforts, such as the solar arrays at the resource recovery facility and at the county detention center, and other programs. Elephants, as the saying goes, are eaten one bite at a time, and this is a big bite.
Bryan von Lossberg served on Missoula City Council from 2014 through 2021