Montana’s Congressional delegation and governor dead wrong on Colstrip

U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, presses EPA Administrator Michael Regan on new rules for coal-fired plants in a hearing on April 30, 2024. (Screenshot via U.S. House of Representatives live stream)

Rep. Ryan Zinke did his best imitation of Trump when grilling Michael S. Regan, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, complete with phony statistics, dire threats, blame-casting and an apparent inability to understand the most basic facts about Colstrip’s ancient, highly polluting and outmoded coal-fired generators.  The real tragedy is he was joined by Montana’s entire Congressional delegation and Gov. Greg Gianforte in defending the continued operation of “the most polluting power plant” in the nation.

As reported by the Daily Montanan, although Zinke assailed the EPA administrator, the facts are the facts, the numbers don’t lie, and Colstrip’s on-going pollution is not only driving disastrous climate change impacts, but emitting highly toxic pollutants with exceedingly harmful effects for humans, especially children. 

Apparently Zinke has been spending too much time in Santa Barbara, California, where his wife has declared residency.  For Montanans who actually live here, however, the lack of snow in our mountains is of considerable concern and portends a long, hot, dry and smokey summer.

He apparently can’t seem to make the connection between the 10 million tons of carbon pollution Colstrip belched out in 2021 — and continues to spew — and our shorter, warmer, dryer winters, earlier hotter and dryer summers.  This undeniable connection is now accepted universally across the globe — except, it would appear, for Montana’s climate denying Congressional delegation of Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, Zinke and Rep. Matt Rosendale. 

Then there’s the toxic emissions of nickel, arsenic, lead and mercury.  As noted by the World Health Organization: “Exposure to mercury – even small amounts – may cause serious health problems, and is a threat to the development of the child in utero and early in life. Mercury may have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, and on lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes.  Mercury is considered by WHO as one of the top ten chemicals or groups of chemicals of major public health concern.” 

Yet, although 93% of the nation’s coal-fired generation plants have installed available technology to curtail these emissions, Colstrip has not.  The fact is, as the EPA notes, that “Colstrip has the only two coal-fired units in the country that do not use modern technology — electrostatic precipitators and fabric filters — to control its particulate matter emissions” is a blight on Montana’s reputation.  It’s not, as our coal-loving politicians seem to think, something we should ever want to sustain.

As for the threat that if we don’t burn coal we’re going to freeze to death in the dark, those Montanans who have been around for awhile will recall that was the exact same falsehood spread 50 years ago by Colstrip’s promoters who traded the Copper Collar for the Coal Collar, lauding our future as “the boiler room for the nation.”  

But the truth today is that renewable/solar energy is now the cheapest energy in Montana’s grid.  It’s possible that because Zinke’s home is in Whitefish, with the Flathead’s notoriously cloudy weather, he may not be aware of the fact that most of Montana is drenched in sunshine and wind year round.  Were he and the rest of our Congressional delegation to pull their heads out of the coal hole, they’d realize this is where the future is going.  That includes their favorite whipping boy, China, which installed more solar energy last year than any nation on the planet — more in one year than the US has installed in its entire history.  They also ignore that solar, wind and hydro are the top three producer’s of China’s energy. 

Of course these are the facts our Congressional delegation and governor refuse to acknowledge.  The future of Montana and the planet must be driven by facts, not “tap-dancing politicians swinging in the winds of expediency.”  And the ugly truth about Colstrip is that its future exists only as Montana’s next extremely expensive and complex Superfund site that will likely require treatment “in perpetuity.”  

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