Renewables, climate, not given adequate consideration, public says
NorthWestern Energy’s Missoula public meeting on its draft Integrated Resource Plan in January 2026. (Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan)
By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan
Ben Catton, with Montana Environmental Information Center, said the public is hungry for information about data centers, but NorthWestern is keeping most of the details about them a secret.
He said NorthWestern’s planned merger with Black Hills Corp highlights serving “large load customers” as a shared priority, but the law only allows them if they won’t harm existing customers.
“The public does not believe the industry sales pitch that adding enormous demand lowers costs,” Catton said. “Yet NorthWestern Energy appears to be rolling out the red carpet for data centers while dragging its feet (in) demonstrating compliance with that statute.”
