HELENA - From river rafters to hospital officials to construction company managers, a half-dozen Montana businesspeople Friday spoke out in favor of climate change legislation before Congress.

"We can't afford not to make some significant changes," said Beth Schenk, sustainability coordinator for St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center in Missoula. "It's a hard thing for everyone to get their arms around, but I don't quite see that it's all that optional."

The business people spoke to reporters via a telephone news conference organized by Climate Solutions, a Seattle-based group supporting initiatives to slow global warming.

Schenk was responding to a question on whether Montanans should support climate change legislation if it raised energy costs for the average person.

She said the impact of global warming on health, tourism and other aspects of the state's economy and environment also impose costs, and that society needs a strong push toward a clean energy policy.

"Without pressure to change, we won't change," she said.

Congress is considering climate change legislation that has been passed by the House, but is awaiting action in the Senate.

The House bill caps "greenhouse gases" that cause global warming, requires utilities to buy a minimum amount of renewable power and establishes new energy savings standards for buildings.

Tim Tolman of the Missoula office of McKinstry Co., which designs and outfits energy-efficiency measures in buildings, said the country can save much energy by requiring energy-efficient buildings, as well as create jobs.

He estimated that outfitting public and other buildings with efficiency upgrades will generate 300 to 400 jobs in Montana for his company alone.

"We can see us doing $20 million in Montana in efficiency construction projects," Tolman said.

John Bacon, business manager of Montana's largest wind farm, the 135-megawatt Judith Gap project, said projects like Judith Gap are development that create jobs and tax revenue for Montana's rural counties.

"We're hoping that the climate change legislation can move us forward into tapping more of these resources out there," he said.

Also at the news conference was Denny Gignoux, who operates Montana Raft Co. and Glacier Wilderness Guides in West Glacier.

He said he sees the negative effects of climate change firsthand, with the receding glaciers in Glacier National Park, lower water levels in the rivers because of warmer summers and less snowpack during the winter.

"We really need to see some swift action to moderate or turn around these trends," Gignoux said.

When asked whether the bill might affect Montana's coal, oil and gas industries, Gignoux said that coal and other fossil fuels will still be in the ground in the future, and that there shouldn't be a rush to develop it. It's more urgent to develop clean power, he said.

"We need to make it possible for green energy, renewable energy to take place," Gignoux said. "We're better off investing in renewable power that will be there long into the future."