Requiring public utilities to report a plan for 100% renewables
Summary
SB 294 would require each public utility in Montana to develop and submit a plan describing options, timelines, and challenges for procuring 100% of its retail electricity sales from renewable resources. The bill expressly allows the plan to include hydroelectric resources and also requires utilities to address options, timelines, and challenges for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Utilities would have to submit these plans to the Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee by June 1, 2026.
The bill also directs the interim committee to review the plans, solicit public comment, and, if needed, make recommendations to the 70th Legislature for further action. The measure is framed as a planning and reporting requirement rather than an immediate mandate to achieve 100% renewable generation, but it would create a formal legislative review process around utility decarbonization and renewable procurement.
Impact
SB 294 would add a new statutory requirement for public utilities to prepare and file renewable-energy transition plans, expanding legislative oversight of utility resource planning and emissions reduction. It would not itself set a binding renewable portfolio standard or mandate immediate changes in utility generation mix, but it would require utilities to disclose pathways, barriers, and timelines for reaching 100% renewable retail sales and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The bill would also activate the Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee as a review body with authority to gather public input and recommend future legislation.
Sentiment
The available vote history suggests the bill faced meaningful resistance. It was moved to table in the Senate Energy, Technology & Federal Relations Committee by an 8-5 vote, and the bill ultimately died in process. That outcome indicates that while there was some support for studying or advancing renewable-energy planning, a majority of the committee was not prepared to move the measure forward. No committee transcript is available here, so the record shows procedural opposition more clearly than detailed policy debate.
Contention
The main point of contention is likely the bill’s direction toward a 100% renewable-energy framework and greenhouse gas reduction planning for public utilities. Supporters would view the measure as a planning tool consistent with Montana’s constitutional clean-and-healthful-environment language, while opponents may have been concerned about costs, feasibility, reliability, utility compliance burdens, and the policy implications of steering utilities toward a renewable-only future. The inclusion of hydroelectric resources may have been intended to broaden the bill’s practicality, but the committee vote suggests unresolved disagreement over whether the state should require this level of planning at all.