Governor Steve Bullock will announce his appointments to a new advisory council on how Montana should respond to new EPA carbon dioxide rules Tuesday. President Obama calls them his “Clean Power Plan.”
The plan calls for Montana to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 47 percent by 2030. That’s more than any other state. In a December interview Bullock said he supports Montana Attorney General Tim Fox joining the state to a lawsuit against the new EPA rules.
"But I’m also not in a position where I want to sit around and say, I’m going to see what happens with a lawsuit. As opposed to getting the folks together that - making statements isn’t going to put together a plan if we need to implement a plan," Bullock said.
Instead, Bullock in November said he would create an “Interim Clean Power Plan Advisory Council.”
"And that’ll have from — Colstrip owners, to conservationists, to business folks, to others — to say, 'how can we best address this, and how can we best move forward?' There is still quite a bit of uncertainty over what this might look like, but I’d much rather us be in the driver’s seat than just abdicating over to the federal government."
Bullock will announce his appointments to the advisory council tomorrow morning in Colstrip. He says the council will provide the Montana Department of Environmental Quality with recommendations necessary for the state to file an initial response to the EPA plan later this year.