There’s a good bill up for a vote tomorrow in the Montana Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, and, if you have a minute, please write the committee to ask that they vote for the bill.

The bill has the support of Governor Steve Bullock, who encourages Montanans to “take action towards combating climate change and investing in Montana’s renewable energy industry by contacting the Montana Legislature today.”

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is not just another government program and doesn’t cost taxpayers anything. Instead, PACE uses private capital from banks to finance a homeowner’s up-front costs of remodeling to improve energy efficiency, water conservation, and small-scale wind and solar energy installations. Financing occurs over 20 years. Often, the the homeowner saves more every month on his/her power bill than the amount of extra payment of his/her mortgage. So it’s a an uptick in a person’s standard of living.

Thirty-five states have already enabled PACE. The Northern Plains Resource Council has a four-page explanation of the PACE program at their website here:

https://www.northernplains.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PACEfactsheet_5_2017-03-9_FNL.pdf

You can call and leave a message for the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee by calling (406) 444-4800. Or you can write a message to the whole committee by going to the contact form, filling out your name and address, and clicking the committee button and choosing the Senate Energy and Telecommunications committee from the pull-down menu. I’ve pasted in my letter I wrote below.

Thanks for being in the loop.

Jeff Smith, co-chair, 350 Montana