By Amanda Eggert, Montana Free Press
Whether they’re inclined to support or oppose them, many Montanans are hungry for more information, and data-center developers have been reluctant to provide it. Montana Environmental Information Center Executive Director Anne Hedges told MTFP that these companies might be looking for “easy pickings” in Montana, but residents of Butte, Billings, Broadview and Great Falls have shown an “overwhelming interest” in the topic at educational events MEIC has co-hosted. Hedges said public engagement with this issue is like nothing else she’s encountered in the 32 years she’s worked for MEIC, an environmental nonprofit that also serves as a corporate watchdog.
“We’ve had to turn people away in a room that holds hundreds,” Hedges said, referring to last month’s talk in Billings, which turned into a standing-room-only event. “It’s fascinating from an academic perspective, but certainly from the perspective of somebody who wants to get regulations in place to protect Montanans from what the richest men in America want to do.”
