HELENA - As winter looms in Montana, Helena homeowner Julie Morley worries about what part of her already tight budget she'll have to cut to pay her heating bills.
”I've cut back on food. I don't do any long-distance calling anymore,“ she said. ”I stopped taking the newspaper in March. Something will have to go. What are they going to do for people like me?“
Prices for natural gas, electricity, heating oil and motor fuel are careening skyward, with no relief in sight.
Against this backdrop, Gov. Brian Schweitzer this week convenes the first major event of his governorship: a two-day energy symposium in Bozeman that will bring together as many as 600 energy industry reps, bureaucrats, environmentalists, politicians and average citizens to talk energy policy.
”Of course, I couldn't know that the timing would be so great,“ he said in a recent interview. ”But I knew that over the next five or 10 years, this was one of the greater challenges that we have in Montana, and that we need to get it right.“
Schweitzer, Montana's first Democratic governor in 16 years, says the event will help him craft an energy policy not only for the state, but also for the region, tackling issues ranging from coal mining to conservation.
But with outlandish energy prices a continuing headline in America, a major focus of the summit can't help but be consumers and how they can cope with the new pricing regime.
”While many great minds are gathered to talk about the long term, it is important to talk about what we could do this winter to ease the burden on consumers in our state,“ Schweitzer said, with special emphasis on home heating costs.
The energy summit convenes Tuesday morning on the Montana State University campus in Bozeman, kicked off by Schweitzer and headlined that evening by a panel of governors from Utah, Washington, Wyoming and West Virginia.
Jon S. Brumley, president of Encore Acquisitions, a growing independent energy company with oil and natural gas reserves in Montana, North Dakota, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, will address the group on Wednesday.
Between the headliners, two dozen panels will meet over two days and talk about the complexities of issues that could evolve into concrete policies pursued by the Schweitzer administration.
If nothing else, most conference-goers are likely to agree that Montana must do something to address rising energy costs facing its citizens.
But when it comes to how, the scope of answers is as diverse as the people attending the summit.
Schweitzer also faces partisan critics who fear the summit is little more than a soapbox for the new governor, who wants to promote himself and his preconceived plans and ideas for energy policy in Montana.
”We ought to take these ideas and go with them based on what's best for Montana and not what's best for Brian Schweitzer's political aspirations,“ says House Republican Leader Roy Brown of Billings, who plans to attend the conference.
Brown, a petroleum engineer and former partner in an oil-production company, is looking at longer-term solutions that could help Montana consumers.
He said he wants to open up more state lands to natural gas exploration and offer tax breaks to companies that agree to sell that gas at below-market rates for Montana consumption.
”It's not anything that's going to help this winter, or even next winter,“ he said. ”In the short term, it's going to be very tough for a lot of people in Montana.“
Several panels focus directly on consumer strategies, and the summit's final session Wednesday will talk specifically about how to help people this winter with high home heating costs.
But some conferees say the summit seems tilted toward energy development and not necessarily what's best for the consumer.
Pat Judge, energy program director for the Montana Environmental Information Center, one of the state's leading environmental groups, said the best way to help consumers is to promote energy conservation.
It's cheap, it can be implemented quickly and it will save people money right now, he said.
Morley's home in Helena is one of at least 500 in Montana getting low-cost insulation in the coming weeks, thanks to a new program launched by the Schweitzer administration and the Montana Conservation Corps.
”I think Montanans are hungry for more information (on conservation),“ Judge said. ”It's the cheapest resource and the most environmentally benign. But we're hearing a lot more about the governor's enthusiasm for coal development than we are the conservation message.“
Schweitzer has been traveling the state, promoting the possibility of massive coal-to-fuels processing plants in eastern Montana - an idea prominently on display at the conference.
Schweitzer acknowledges that the coal-to-fuels idea will be an issue at the conference. But anyone who's seen the agenda can't claim the summit favors one approach over another, he said.
”This is pretty dang comprehensive,“ he said.
The coal-to-fuels idea is not the only coal project on the horizon in Montana, nor the only one that will be discussed at the conference.
Tim Gregori, general manager of a Billings-based electric cooperative hoping to build a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls, said the summit will be a great chance to show how the plant fits into Montana's energy future.
The plant would provide a steady source of power for 100,000 people served by five co-ops in central and southern Montana that need a new major supplier in three years.
If Montana consumers want a stable, affordable source of power, a coal-fired plant is a great resource, Gregori says and this plant also offers newer technology that will burn coal more cleanly.
”We need to put baseload power online that will stabilize power rates and help Montanans get a predictable source of power, so we can plan our future,“ he said. ”We need to solve the more immediate problems.“
Bruce Measure, one of Schweitzer's two appointees to the regional Northwest Power and Conservation Council, said the thrust of the conference is to evaluate Montana's energy resources and come up with a plan so the state isn't ”caught unaware“ by market forces - and that includes protecting consumers.
”I know that the governor has committed to looking at every angle that is possible to reduce the impacts (of high energy prices) on Montana,“ Measure says.
Whether the summit, or its results, can do anything immediate for consumers remains to be seen.
Tim Crennen, vice president of operations for JTL Group, a highway construction firm headquartered in Billings, said high fuel costs are taking a big bite out of the company, which uses 15,000 to 20,000 gallons of diesel fuel a day during construction season.
His company can pass some costs along to customers, but he's skeptical about what else can be done, regardless of how much the political powers-that-be want to help.
”It just seems to me that Montana consumes such a small portion of the fuel in the country that I don't know what sort of an impact we could expect to have on that market,“ Crennen said. ”It's just so market-driven.“
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