MEIC Participates in Basin Creek Ground Breaking

[May 2005] On April 15th, 2005, Basin Creek Power Services broke ground for a new 50-megawatt natural-gas-fired power plant that will be located in an industrial park south of Butte. Not only did Jim Williams, president of Basin Creek, set construction in motion that day, he set a precedent by inviting MEIC to participate. Leslie McClain of MEIC spoke at the ceremony, along with Governor Brian Schweitzer, two New York bankers whose firm financed the project, and a spokesman for Caterpillar. As a highly publicized event in the Butte-Silver Bow area, the ground breaking was a perfect opportunity to show Montana how responsible energy development can work.

The ground breaking marked the culmination of efforts between Basin Creek and MEIC to address the carbon dioxide emissions of the proposed power plant. The collaboration began four years ago when Jim Williams contacted MEIC’s Patrick Judge to inform him of the proposed power plant, and to ask what MEIC’s potential environmental concerns would be. Although often labeled “clean energy,” natural gas generation emits a considerable amount of carbon dioxide. After an extensive study to estimate annual carbon emissions, MEIC challenged Basin Creek to adhere to Oregon’s carbon dioxide emission standard—one of the toughest in the nation.

To do this, Basin Creek agreed to pay $500,000 to an Oregon-based group called Climate Trust. The money will be used for grants that support efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and for carbon sequestration projects such as reforestation. Projects based in Montana will have preference for the grants. To date, Climate Trust has offset more than 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide with $4 million invested into various projects.

Another positive benefit of Basin Creek is its role in furthering the development of wind energy in Montana. Montana ranks 5th in the nation for wind energy potential but only 24th for developed wind capacity. One of the barriers to wind energy development is the intermittency of its electricity generation. The addition of a fast-starting plant such as Basin Creek to NorthWestern Energy’s default supply will encourage future wind development in the state. With its state-of-the-art Caterpillar electric generators, Basin Creek can start up and be generating electricity in less than ten minutes. By combining this with wind-generated electricity, NorthWestern Energy can count on a reliable supply of electricity to meet its power loads. In this way, Basin Creek will help the 150-MW Judith Gap Project become Montana’s first commercial-scale wind farm.

In addition to its environmental benefits, the Basin Creek plant will also promote economic growth in Butte, will provide “load following” services that are not harmful to fish (current “load following” systems are provided by hydro-electric sources), and will enhance power grid reliability.

MEIC wants to express its appreciation to Jim Williams for his continued commitment to environmental stewardship and responsibility. We can only hope more developers in Montana will be as responsive to environmental concerns as he has been.