[February 2008] 

In December 2005, Gov. Brian Schweitzer wrote a letter to DEQ director Richard Opper asking him to establish a working group on climate change. In April 2006, Opper announced the group’s eighteen members (including MEIC's Patrick Judge), and in June, he announced seven additional individuals to serve on a Science Advisory Panel. Both groups came together in Helena in July 2006 for their first meeting.

The process formally concluded with the release of the Climate Change Advisory Committee (CCAC)’s final report in November 2007.

The “Montana Climate Change Action Plan” (and appendices) proposed a goal of returning Montana’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, and included a package of 54 recommendations to help accomplish that end.  Collectively, these actions would keep 63.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere over the next 12 years (see Figure 1 below).  The overall economic impact of the plan is a net savings to Montanans of $65.8 million (just over $1 per ton of carbon dioxide not emitted).

Montana consumption-based gross GHG emissions.
Montana production-based gross GHG emissions.

At a press conference announcing the release of the report, Gov. Brian Schweitzer also unveiled two conservation initiatives for the State.  The first was an ambitious goal of reducing energy consumption by State agencies 20% by 2010, and the second was a separate goal of having State-owned vehicles attain a fleet average fuel economy of 30 miles per gallon.  These measures would save taxpayers millions of dollars annually in avoided energy costs.  In addition, Schweitzer announced that Montana would join the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a collaborative effort by seven western states and two Canadian provinces to develop a multi-sector cap-and-trade program for reducing the region’s greenhouse gas emissions.  Joining WCI was one of the report’s 54 recommendations.  The other 53 may require a little more work to implement.

On the same day the final report was released, three industry representatives on the CCAC (Mark Lambrecht, PPL Montana; Tim Gregori, Southern Montana Electric; and Shane Mogensen, Nance Petroleum) issued a statement calling into question the feasibility and affordability of some of the recommendations, and urging “further analysis” before implementation.  A separate letter signed by a majority of the CCAC members reaffirmed their commitment to the report’s recommendations and expressed disappointment at the thirteenth-hour attack.

Their letter also pointed out that the process was a consensus-based one, and that all but one of the recommendations had received unanimous consent.  “For participants to now be saying negative things about the report (including some objections not previously stated in committee deliberations) is a disservice to the process and all of our efforts.”  

The report encountered further resistance following a presentation by Department of Environmental Quality director Richard Opper to the Environmental Quality Council in January.  According to news accounts, Rep. Craig Witte (R-Kalispell) stated:  “I don’t think the state of Montana is the cutting edge that is going to fix this global warming crisis, if one exists.”  Witte also called the report “junk science.”  (It should be noted that the deliberations of the 18-member committee were informed by input from a six-member Scientific Advisory Panel.  The panel included Dr. Steven Running, who recently shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.)  Sen. Robert Story (R-Park City) followed up on Witte’s theme, arguing that Montana’s emissions are insignificant from a global perspective, while Sen. Dan McGee (R-Laurel) asked how much of the blame goes to human respiration (the answer is about 1.5%—and note that not only are those emissions necessary, they are of a somewhat different nature than the transfer of geologic carbon stores to the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion).

MEIC will be working with CCAC members, public interest groups, government agencies, and other stakeholders to build a campaign of support for full implementation of the Climate Change Action Plan. 

The Final Report of the Montana Climate Change Advisory Committee is available on the DEQ website at www.mtclimatechange.us/CCAC.cfm

For More Information:

Montana Climate Change Advisory Committee website:
www.mtclimatechange.us

Montana Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Forecast, 1990-2020:  To view this document, go to the above website and choose “CCAC” at left, then choose “CCS, Draft Montana Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Forecast, 1990-2020” near the bottom of the page.

SEE ALSO:  Governor’s Climate Committee Recommends Swift, Strong Action (August 2006)