Environmentalists said the bill from Rep. Michael Lange, R-Billings, will pollute Montana's air and water by giving developers blanket approval.
The governor's office agreed the measure goes too far, and said other solutions are needed to speed energy development.
"We're talking about energy, all of the things everybody claims they want to do," Lange told the House Federal Relations, Energy, and Telecommunications Committee. "We need to develop everything. We need to quit fighting about what is the best and what is the worst and come together."
Lange said energy projects would still need a permit from the Department of Environmental Quality to ensure they are clean projects. But they could bypass other environmental constraints, including the Major Facility Siting Act and Montana Environmental Policy Act.
Supporters included industry groups who said the bill will take the debate over building energy plants and development out of the courts.
Lange warned opponents: "Resistance is futile. Because if you resist long enough, you hurt the same people you claim to protect."
His bill proclaims that "it is in the public interest that the Legislature, on behalf of all Montanans, remove impediments and facilitate the timely and sustainable development of Montana's clean energy resources for energy and economic security purposes."
Environmentalists warned that true clean energy projects like wind power and biodiesel would be put on the backburner because "dirty energy projects" like traditional coal-burning plants get a free pass. They also said the measure would exempt the companies from any litigation.
"I would dub this bill the most outrageous bill of the session," said Anne Hedges, with the Montana Environmental Information Center.
Opponents argued that the energy projects should need to pass muster with the state's normal permitting process to make sure they are clean.
Evan Barrett, with the Gov. Brian Schweitzer administration, said they want to massage the regulatory process _ not gut it. He said they are focused on developing energy, such as coal gasification, that does not produce more carbon dioxide.
"What about the clean and green? This is not a clean and green bill," he said of Lange's measure. "This bill goes way beyond the rhetoric of clean and green and emasculates a process we can fix properly."
Lange's bill is House Bill 405
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