Peyton Olson, Author at Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC https://meic.org/author/polson/ Clean and healthful. It's your right, our mission. Mon, 29 Sep 2025 20:20:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://meic.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/cropped-MEIC_whitesmall-32x32.png Peyton Olson, Author at Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC https://meic.org/author/polson/ 32 32 Montana PSC, NorthWestern Energy Clash Over Large-Load Customer Rules https://meic.org/montana-psc-northwestern-energy-clash-over-large-load-customer-rules/ Tue, 09 Sep 2025 19:54:22 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39585 By Ayla Burnett, ClearingUp News Data The Montana Public Service Commission (MPSC) on Sept. 3 sent a letter to NorthWestern Energy requesting more information about how it plans to serve new, large-load customers—signaling the latest turn in a dispute over the utility’s intent to service two Montana data centers. MPSC decided to send the letter …

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]]> Montana DEQ Denies Petition to Loosen Lake Koocanusa Selenium Standard https://meic.org/montana-deq-denies-petition-to-loosen-lake-koocanusa-selenium-standard/ Wed, 03 Sep 2025 20:01:31 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39592 By Tristan Scott, Flathead Beacon The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has denied a petition by the board of commissioners in Lincoln County seeking to loosen the state’s site-specific regulatory cap on the mining byproduct selenium, which is leaching out of coal mines in British Columbia and contaminating the international watershed at Lake Koocanusa, …

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]]> Climate petition denied by Montana Public Service Commission https://meic.org/climate-petition-denied-by-montana-public-service-commission/ Tue, 02 Sep 2025 20:19:05 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39595 By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan In a decision that drew immediate pushback, the Montana Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday against declaring the constitution requires it to consider the adverse impacts of climate change in its work. The PSC also disagreed it must consider climate in a set of statutes outlined in a petition filed …

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]]> Rosebud Mine expansion approved in Montana, sparking environmental debate https://meic.org/rosebud-mine-expansion-approved-in-montana-sparking-environmental-debate/ Tue, 05 Aug 2025 16:04:21 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39154 By Bowen West, NBC Montana The Department of the Interior has approved a major expansion of the Rosebud Mine in Rosebud and Treasure counties, Montana, authorizing the recovery of approximately 33.75 million tons of federal coal and extending the mine’s operation through 2039.   Read the full story.

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]]> Trump expands Montana mine to feed high-emission power plants https://meic.org/trump-expands-montana-mine-to-feed-high-emission-power-plants/ Tue, 05 Aug 2025 15:59:45 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39146 By Hannah Northey, E&E News The Rosebud coal mine near Colstrip is at the center of a long legal battle over air pollution and heat-trapping gas. It is slated to operate until 2039. The Interior Department has signed off on the expansion of a Montana coal mine to feed high-emission power plants in yet another …

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]]> NorthWestern wants to supply new AI data center with enough electricity for 800K homes https://meic.org/northwestern-wants-to-supply-new-ai-data-center-with-enough-electricity-for-800k-homes/ Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:02:21 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39152 By David Erickson, Missoulian Late Tuesday night, NorthWestern Energy announced it has signed a letter of intent to supply as much as 1,000 megawatts (one gigawatt) of electricity by the year 2030 to a proposed data center in Montana run by a Texas-based company called Quantica Infrastructure. That is an enormous, mind-boggling amount of power. …

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]]> Montana Congressional delegation’s public lands bait-and-switch https://meic.org/viewpoint-congressional-delegation-bait-and-switch-on-public-lands/ Tue, 22 Jul 2025 21:31:44 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39025 By Anne Hedges, Daily Montanan You can’t take your bird dog hunting on lands being mined or filled with oil rigs, even if they are “public” lands. While Montanans were right to celebrate removing the sale of public lands from the recent Congressional budget bill, some may not know that our representatives still voted to …

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]]> How Investors Are Getting Rich Off Of This Montana Town https://meic.org/how-investors-are-getting-rich-off-of-this-montana-town/ Mon, 14 Jul 2025 15:45:57 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39133 This video by More Perfect Union, featuring MEIC’s Anne Hedges, exposes how for-profit utility companies, like NorthWestern Energy, invest in the most expensive energy resources in order to maximize corporate profits at the expense of bill-paying customers. ??   Watch it here.

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]]> Montana’s rivers run green as lawmakers repeal key water protections https://meic.org/montanas-rivers-run-green-as-lawmakers-repeal-key-water-protections/ Sat, 12 Jul 2025 21:42:39 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=39040 By NBC Montana Staff Large swathes of green algae have become a common sight across several Montana rivers this summer, raising questions about what’s causing the blooms and how recent legislative changes could make matters worse. … “We saw a really unfortunate attack on our defensible clean water standards in this last legislative session.” Said …

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]]> Down to Earth: June 2025 https://meic.org/down-to-earth-june-2025/ Thu, 26 Jun 2025 22:54:13 +0000 https://meic.org/?p=38885 Click the icon at the bottom right to view the issue full screen. June 2025 The audio edition of this episode is in the works.

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