The Montana Supreme Court last year ordered state environmental regulators to redo their assessment of a power plant near Laurel.
The Court specifically asked the state Department of Environmental Quality to reassess the gas-fired power plant’s light pollution and planet-warming emissions. The agency published its new analysis late last week.
Anne Hedges runs the Montana Environmental Information Center. The group sued over DEQ’s original permitting of the plant.
"It's as if they didn't even try to do what the Supreme Court said they were required to do under the Montana Constitution," Hedges says.
She says the new analysis is nearly identical to what was originally done, and fails to account for the lifelong emissions of the plant. That’s equivalent to 180,000 cars on the road each year.
"They, instead, just referenced some 2023 study from BLM that wasn't as detailed as what Montana scientists have compiled," Hedges says. "So we have the Montana climate assessment. We have the Montana climate assessment on public health. DEQ ignored all of that."
In an emailed statement a spokesperson for DEQ said the agency “evaluated greenhouse gas emissions with the same rigor it would apply to any other impact to the Montana environment,” and that the new analysis is consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
