“Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet. The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it.”  –Bill McKibbe

350 Montana needs your help. In the next few weeks, Montanans will decide where we will get our power for the next 20 years. Will we move to climate friendly wind and solar? Or will we continue pouring greenhouse gases into our atmosphere by burning coal and natural gas?

We want to launch a media blitz. We have spectacular 30-second TV spot ready to go. We need your help to get it on the air and up on social media.

You may have seen the news that NorthWestern Energy’s CEO Bob Rowe wants to purchase a larger share of Colstrip, our coal-burning plants in eastern Montana. He wants to take Montana the wrong way! The rest of Colstrip’s owners (utilities in Washington, Oregon, and California) want to shutter the plants and contribute to responsible clean-up and worker retraining. 

Most alarming, Bob Rowe doesn’t want the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) to regulate his company. Coal already is the company’s most expensive source of power. The Montana Consumer Counsel says coal costs NorthWestern Energy’s customers $74 a megawatt hour, while Judith Gap wind costs $30 and South Peak wind costs $22. And, if the company gets its way with buying more of Colstrip, ratepayers, not stockholders, will be on the hook for the huge cost overruns.

We’ve set up an emergency Climate Action Fund so that 350 Montana can lead the public debate and make sure renewable energy gets its fair shake. Please go here to donate: https://www.350montana.org/about/

(If you donate on-line, please note that the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center is our non-profit sponsor, and you should click 350 Montana in JRPC’s pull-down menu.)

NorthWestern Energy just released a 20-year plan that says Montana is running short on electricity. The plan rejects the idea that energy conservation would help fill the gap, and it rejects all new wind and solar. It doesn’t even mention storage technologies that utilities from coast-to-coast are using to make clean energy work.

Montanans favor renewable energy. Montana is harboring some of the best wind and solar potential in the world. We have the money, we have the technology, and, as everybody knows, we have the skilled workers to build a fossil-fuel-free energy infrastructure in Montana.

That’s why were asking you to help 350 Montana with a tax-deductible donation now . . . so we can do a massive outreach effort in traditional and social media to get Montanans to demand more clean energy. 

This ambitious media plan will start in a short couple of weeks. Help us stop more coal development in Montana. Help us tell the truth about our Great Transition to carbon-free energy

The time is now. Our climate depends on us.