By Amanda Eggert, Montana Free Press
The Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last week after it passed the U.S. Senate by the thinnest of margins, has been widely described as the most expansive piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. The measure also reforms health insurance, prescription drug pricing and corporate tax structure, but the provisions that Biden has touted as “the biggest step forward on climate ever” reform the energy sector, largely by creating incentives for corporations, electric cooperatives and individuals to transition to cleaner sources of energy.
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Montana Environmental Information Center Energy Policy Director Ian Lund said he’d like to see the fee that the federal government will levy on plants like the Laurel Generation Station reflected in NorthWestern’s planning documents that lay out how the company expects to meet demand with the various sources of energy it owns or acquires from other entities — for example, hydropower facilities, solar and wind farms, and the state’s first utility-scale battery project.
“NorthWestern is doing its resource procurement plan right now, and all of its cost assumptions have been locked in, but were essentially made obsolete by the passage of this bill,” Lund said. “The cost of solar, wind, batteries and even nuclear, is going to be much lower than what they currently have on there. On the other side, the methane rule will make a gas plant more expensive.”