environmental policy

from page 11 to make several changes to net metering, which allows residential solar customers to put excess electricity onto the grid and pull from a utility’s power lines during times of high demand, garnered considerable interest in the House Energy, Technology and Federal Relations Committee, which has been described by Committee Chair Katie Zolnikov, R-Billings, as a “slow burn” committee. It conducted many of its bill hearings in the two weeks leading up to the transmittal deadline. A couple of proposals involving the Montana Public Service Commission, the elected body that regulates monopoly utility companies, also garnered considerable interest.

— House Bill 170, a “repealer” measure seeking to strike the Legislature’s state energy policy, passed out of the House on party lines with GOP lawmakers in favor and Democrats opposed. Proponents of HB 170 argue that the 30-year-old energy policy lawmakers first adopted when Marc Racicot was governor is a toothless piece of code lacking regulatory weight, and that Gov. Gianforte should have an opportunity to start fresh with his own vision for Montana’s energy future. Opponents counter that it’s ill-advised for the Legislature to willingly surrender its own energy vision.

— House Bill 241, which would prevent a local government from requiring that new buildings be constructed with solar panels or solar panel-ready or electric vehicle-ready wiring, passed the House and is awaiting a hearing in the Senate. It’s sponsored by Rep. Joshua Kassmier, R-Fort Benton.

— Sen. Jason Small, R-Busby, sponsored a similar “powers denied” measure, Senate Bill 208, which would prevent local governments from prohibiting or impeding the connection or reconnection of natural gas or propane lines. It passed the House on March 2, largely on party lines with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

— Small also sponsored Senate Bill 228, which would prevent local governments from prohibiting the use of any petroleum-based fuels such as natural gas or methane. Sen. Brad Molnar, R-Laurel, was the lone Republican to join Democrats in voting no on SB 228. It passed out of the Senate 33-17.

— An effort to make the Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulating board, an appointed rather than elected body stalled in committee. House Bill 755 sought to establish job qualifications that would render candidates eligible for the appointment and create a bipartisan nominating advisory committee to forward commissioner recommendations to the governor. It was tabled by the House Legislative Administration Committee on Feb. 28.

— Another bill related to the PSC, Senate Bill 109, passed out of the Senate on a 30-20 vote late last week. Bill sponsor Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, introduced an amendment to his measure last week that would use state House districts as a model to redraw PSC district boundaries. Regier said his amendment divvies the state’s population proportionally. Opponents countered that Regier’s boundaries unfairly favor Republican PSC candidates and split several of the state’s largest cities.

— House Bill 643, a Kassmier measure proposing a handful of changes to net metering, was voted down in the House Energy Committee during the transmittal week crush. It would have raised the net metering cap, which renewable advocates have long called for. It would also have created a new rate class for solar customers and directed the PSC to study solar’s cost to utilities, both of which opponents described as efforts to disincentivize residential solar adoption.

— House Bill 454, sponsored by Rep. Gary Parry, R-Colstrip, would have substantially increased the taxes paid by large-scale renewable energy producers, generating revenues that would then be split between the coal severance tax trust fund and a county renewable resource electrical production impacts account. It was tabled in the House Taxation Committee, 20-1.

Transportation

On the transportation front, “electric” is the word of the session. It’s looking likely that the Legislature will pass taxes to be levied on electric vehicle owners and users of public EV charging stations. The former is a (more moderately priced) revival of a bill that made it through the Legislature during the 2021 session only to be vetoed by Gov. Greg Gianforte, who took issue with Montana EV owners paying some of the “highest fees in the nation.” The latter represents a new effort to garner funding for highway construction and maintenance from out-of-state EV drivers. Both are sponsored by House Transportation Committee Chair, Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis.

— House Bill 60 sets up a system to tax EV and plug-in hybrid owners when they remit annual vehicle registration fees to their county treasurer. The tax ranges from $130 to $1,100 depending on the vehicle’s weight. It’s been voted through the House and the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee.

— House Bill 55 establishes a structure for taxing public EV charging station users and requires new charging stations to include electricity meters. An attempt to estab- lish an entirely new tax, HB 55 has been heavily amended in the legislative grinder. A new fiscal note has been requested, and the bill has passed out of the House Appropriations Committee, but hasn’t been kicked back to the House for a third reading vote yet.

Republican lawmakers also proposed bills to explicitly state where electric motor-assisted bikes can be ridden. Both of those measures — House Bill 261 and Senate Bill 342 — progressed through their second reading only to be voted down on third reading, the final step before continuing to the opposite legislative body. Although there are some notable differences between the two bills, both would have made low-powered e-bikes explicitly legal on all state-managed trails where regular bicycles can be ridden.

WHAT’S AHEAD

Lawmakers, lobbyists and agency leads have referenced a handful of bills in the environmental and recreation-management realm that are still taking shape. They include proposals to put some of the state’s $2.5 billion surplus toward a legacy trust for private and public land conservation and habitat restoration projects; a legislative fix to address overcrowding on the Madison, one of the state’s most popular rivers; and a tweak or repeal of a 2021 bill that directed the DEQ to come up with an alternative to numeric nutrient water quality standards. We’ll be tracking those proposals if they come up for a hearing as well.