Laurel Gas Plant

Is NorthWestern Energy Allergic to Clean Energy or Just Addicted to Fossil Fuels?

by Anne Hedges

In late May, NorthWestern Energy filed a request with the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) to build a 175-megawatt gas plant near Laurel, Montana. It also proposed a 50-megawatt battery storage project that could be used for electricity generated from any source, including coal and gas. When announcing the proposed new $286 million gas plant, NorthWestern comically stated that building such a plant will help it meet its carbon reduction targets… despite the fact that gas is a fossil fuel. It underscores how out of touch NorthWestern is with the meaning of words and with the changing energy markets.

Two decades ago, people called gas a bridge fuel to a low-carbon economy. We’ve learned a lot since that time. Gas extraction and transport are notorious for high methane emissions. Over a 20-year time horizon, methane is a greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. As the U.S. and other countries adopt policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, gas plants will be under increased pressure to install expensive emissions reduction equipment, have customers pay escalating emission fees, or shutdown the plants, making them a “stranded asset,” which means that customers will have to keep paying for the plant even though it is no longer operating. Any of these options is expensive. NorthWestern is hoping the PSC will allow it to charge customers the $286 million needed to build the plant plus allow it to earn nearly 10.3% on its investment. In addition, NorthWestern’s customers will have to pay the annual costs to operate and maintain the plant, including the cost of the gas necessary to run the plant, which is predicted to increase significantly over the next decade.

NorthWestern’s plan comes at a time when the federal government is under increasing pressure to stop leasing oil and gas resources on public lands. The Biden Administration is analyzing the problem as it tries to move the U.S. toward a more sustainable energy economy. Potential future limits on the use of gas could lead to increased costs. Many Montanans heat their homes with gas, so this could increase conflicts over whether to use a limited supply of gas to heat homes or to generate electricity. In a cold state such as Montana, we should plan our path to a low-carbon economy with these challenges and limitations in mind. Using gas for electricity generation is misguided and will be increasingly more expensive.

Finally, NorthWestern constantly states that it needs more flexible capacity. Flexible capacity is electricity that is available on short notice when there are spikes in demand, such as on a hot summer day, or on a cold day in the middle of winter. Many utilities are increasingly relying on solar, wind, and geothermal resources, and on different types of storage technologies (e.g., pumped hydro and various battery technologies). NorthWestern, unsurprisingly, picked its own gas plant to fill its purported flexible capacity need instead of choosing from a host of proposals that were submitted by clean energy developers from

Why we don’t talk about “natural” gas

You may have noticed that MEIC doesn’t use the term “natural gas,” and that’s for good reason. Gas is just as natural as coal, arsenic or uranium; adding the word “natural” to it doesn’t make it better or safer for the environment.