by Ben Catton and Nick Fitzmaurice
2027 still feels far away, but draft legislation is beginning to take shape in advance of Montana’s next Legislative Session. As always, MEIC tracks legislative developments in the interim so you don’t have to. A number of interim committees have been meeting since the close of the 2025 Legislative Session, with final meetings, legislative recommendations, and opportunities for public input slated for later this summer. You can leave comments for committees by calling 406-444-3064 or visiting www.legmt.gov/participate.
Environmental Quality Council (EQC)
In late April, PBS Impact reporter Anna Rau broke a story that revealed the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) withheld fish tissue sampling results for more than a year, despite those results revealing toxic levels of PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances). PFAS is a term used for man-made chemicals that have unique characteristics which can be desirable to certain products, but the exact chemical recipes are often proprietary. Due to their durability, they persist indefinitely and accumulate in soil, water, air, and living organisms, and are linked to cancer, reproductive impacts, development delays, and more.
DEQ collected fish tissue samples in 2023, but the Governor’s Office directed the agency to withhold the reports that advise against eating PFAS-contaminated fish from many of Montana’s popular fisheries. Consuming a single serving of fish from these lakes and rivers may expose a person to thousands of times more toxins than the EPA’s limit for drinking water.
On May 13, MEIC’s Derf Johnson appeared before the Montana legislative EQC interim committee and argued for further investigation into identifying sources of these contaminants, mitigation strategies, and regulations to protect Montanans health and our recreation economy. Johnson pointed out that DEQ leadership was in possession of these reports during the 2025 Legislative Session when bills like HB 290 (Rep. Ed Stafman, D-Bozeman) aimed to address these contaminants. DEQ leadership was in the room in January 2025 when a citizen from Helena testified that taking no action on PFAS would lead to consequences such as “forbidding people from eating fish, wild turkeys, and even deer because PFAS contaminants have bioaccumulated in the meat, and the chemical concentrations now greatly exceed safe limits by hunters, anglers, and their families.” That citizen’s hypothetical scenario was already reality, and DEQ shouldve shared that vital information with legislators and the public.
“This is really about our right to know,” Johnson said. “Disclosure of information has to be timely… If you have people unknowingly exposing themselves to things that cause cancer, that is a serious issue.”
Montanans deserve a government willing to confront this problem honestly before the costs — environmental, economic, and human — become even greater. Following MEIC’s suggestion, EQC will further investigate this topic at its July meeting.
Water Policy Interim Committee (WPIC)
WPIC was tasked with HJ 44 (Rep. Zack Wirth, R-Wolf Creek), a study of the presence, prevalence, and potential harms of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) and PFAS in Montana. The study passed 88-11 in the House and 40-9 in the Senate but has been largely neglected by WPIC. With the revelations of grave PFAS contamination in fish tissues across the state, MEIC is encouraging WPIC to reopen the study. Please contact the committee and tell them to further research sources of toxic contamination, mitigation strategies, and prevention solutions.
Governor’s Energy Task Force
The Governor’s Energy Task Force and its three subcommittees (Generation, Growing Demand, and Transmission and Markets) continue to work toward their September deadline to issue a closing report with policy recommendations to the Governor. The full Task Force met in March and May, with their next full Task Force meeting tentatively scheduled for July 8. Welcoming data centers to the state and building expensive gas and nuclear generation to power them remains a top focus of the Task Force, with Montanans’ need for an affordable and reliable electric system trailing far behind, and environmental considerations nowhere to be found.
As of the Task Force’s May meeting, policies were beginning to take shape. However, it remains unclear what beneficial recommendations might come out of the Task Force other than the Governor endorsing the findings of the Western Transmission Expansion Coalition (WestTEC) 10-year study. Those findings include essential interstate transmission development to better connect Montana to clean, reliable, and affordable energy throughout the West.
MEIC anticipates a slew of sinister policy recommendations around data centers and gas plant development (such as a massive 1,785 megawatt gas plant proposal from Quantica that came to light right as this issue went to press) and will continue monitoring the Task Force closely as those recommendations take shape. For example, the Growing Demand Subcommittee has taken aim at Montana’s “Choice Statute,” MCA 69-8-201. That law requires new energy customers over five megawatts (such as data centers) that choose electricity service from the public utility to demonstrate to the PSC that they will not cause harm to existing utility customers before the utility can begin to serve them. Exactly what changes the full committee will recommend remain to be seen, but it’s safe to assume that NorthWestern Energy will try to increase the megawatt threshold for PSC oversight of new data center customers, decrease public transparency into negotiations with new data center customers, and change the law to the benefit of NorthWestern’s shareholders, not its existing customers — exactly as its large load tariff proposal attempts.
Energy and Technology Interim Committee (ETIC)
ETIC began formalizing draft legislation in its March and May meetings. MEIC will continue engaging in the two remaining meetings in July and September as the committee finishes drafting committee legislation for the upcoming session. Here is some notable draft legislation:
- PSC Restructuring: An initiative to change the PSC from elected to appointed commissioners would institute professional experience criteria with the intent to create a non-partisan, competent regulatory body with regulatory expertise. While it is apparent that our current PSC is dysfunctional, MEIC values Montanans’ ability to select its Commissioners rather than handing that selection power to the Governor. MEIC is awaiting the Montana Supreme Court ruling on whether the current PSC districts represent unconstitutional gerrymandering before weighing in further. At its May meeting, ETIC agreed to pre-introduce a bill for next session.
- Interstate Competitive Transmission Development Compact Act: While this is a well-intentioned initiative to spur interstate collaboration for developing transmission projects, the early draft appears to create additional regulatory hurdles to transmission development without meaningfully improving the chances for developing interstate transmission across Montana’s borders. At its May meeting, the Committee agreed to pre-introduce the bill for next session.
- Montana Solar Shares Act: ETIC is reviving the popular shared solar bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support before falling to the Governor’s veto in 2025. ETIC is looking to build on momentum from last session to bring this bill back with committee support and hopefully get it over the finish line in 2027.
- Geothermal Regulatory Framework: MEIC continues working with members of ETIC to craft legislation that will pave the way for enhanced geothermal clean energy development in Montana while establishing important regulatory guardrails to protect the environment and Montanans should geothermal development come to the state.
- Ratepayer Protection: MEIC is working with members of ETIC as they craft legislation to ensure ratepayers are protected from subsidizing major data center interests.
This article was published in the June 2026 issue of Down To Earth.
