The Montana Climate Action Project is a collaboration of partners in Montana working to find solutions, create opportunities and empower people around the issue of climate change. Our goal is to provide Montana citizens with the information and tools they need to understand climate change and make personal changes that will have a positive effect on the climate change crisis.
Energy, agribusiness top potential diversification list
By Erin Madison, Great Falls Tribune, 7/23/2009
The total economic impact of losing Malmstrom's 564th Missile Squadron in July 2007 is more than $30 million, but the Sweet Grass region holds potential to diversify its economy through energy and agribusiness as well as other means.
Those were the findings of a 12-month study funded by the Office of Economic Adjustment and the Montana Department of Commerce with the goal of helping the Sweet Grass area, which includes Cascade, Glacier, Pondera, Teton and Toole counties, weather the loss of the 50 missiles and 550 personnel. The Sweet Grass region has potential in the energy sector to offer wind energy and wind firming energy as well as renewable diesel.
Montana forests get $10 million for projects
By The Montana Standard Staff, 7/21/2009
HELENA—National forests in Montana are slated to get about $10.1 million in federal stimulus money for facilities and trails, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.
The money is part of the $274 million set aside in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress earlier this year for these uses. The money will go for projects on U.S. Forest Service lands in 32 states. "The Recovery Act projects we're announcing today are central to creating jobs and building a better, stronger economy in the future," Vilsack said in a press release.
We must pave the way on climate change action
By David McGinnis, Cathy Whitlock, Steve Running, and Jedediah Brodie, Great Falls Tribune, 7/20/2009
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a landmark climate and energy bill, making a critical first step in addressing the threats that the United States faces from the ever-increasing impacts of global warming that we scientists have repeatedly warned about for decades — but it is only a first step.
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The urgency of this long-awaited action was underscored in a multi-agency report released by the administration last month which provided the first nationwide snapshot of our vulnerability to climate change since 2001, and represents the best available climate science in the United States.
Localvores: Movement to buy Montana products helps boost agricultural economy
By Nick Gevock, Montana Standard, 7/18/2009
Tammy Hinman, an agricultural specialist for NCAT in Butte, says she prefers to buy local produce, and will spend extra for it. For Lori Stiffler, a few extra dollars spent to buy locally grown vegetables at the Butte Farmers' Market is well worth it.
The produce and other foods there are of great quality, she said. And the 55-year-old Butte resident said she feels safer knowing the fruits and vegetables she's eating are grown in Montana and not trucked hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.
Watts of savings
By Martin J. Kidston, Independent Record, 7/17/2009
Eliza Wiley Independent Record - Jack Isbell, with Solar Montana, uses a solar pathfinder to analyze the amount of light that can be harnessed from the roof of Helena Housing Authority’s administration building.
The Helena Housing Authority expects to save $2.4 million in utility costs over the next 15 years after it completes an energy upgrade of its 366 city housing units.
The project marks the first “performance contract” with a public housing authority in Montana and will allow HHA to reduce energy and water costs and apply the savings to repay the project loan.
NCAT releases new climate change publication
Addressing climate change can reduce energy costs, create green jobs in Montana
BUTTE, Mont. — The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is relea
sing a new climate change publication that highlights ways Montana consumers can address climate change while reducing energy costs and creating green jobs.
The publication, titled Changing climate, Changing future, is a guide to climate change in Montana and smart ways we all can act now to preserve our state for tomorrow’s generation.
Changing climate, Changing future details the work of the Montana Climate Change Advisory Committee, a group established by Gov. Brian Schweitzer in 2005 to study the effects of climate change in Montana and develop recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state. Greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, are a major cause of climate change.
Changing climate, Changing future features dozens of resources to help Montanans reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. From ways to slash home heating bills to ideas for squeezing the most out of a gallon of gas, the resources will also help Montanans save money by using less energy.
In 2007, the Climate Change Advisory Committee produced a 450-page report with 54 recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Montana. Changing climate, Changing future provides a sampling of these recommendations, along with several success stories of Montanans already acting to reduce their own emissions.
Download Changing climate, Changing_future.[PDF/6.3MB]
Download the full Advisory Committee Report
