By Joshua S Hill •
August 24, 2008
Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.
“Students are already interested in the environment and how to help what they perceive as the problems they’ll face when they join the workforce,” said Robb Larson of Montana State University. “So the goal is to get them thinking about wind and alternative energy as a career path.” And to help the students Montana State, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has named Montana State the home for a new Wind Applications Center.
“We’re a land grant institution dedicated to outreach and engineering,” said Larson, who is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. “It makes sense to support this industry that will eventually help students find jobs in their own state and support this clean, renewable energy industry.”
Billings, MT plays host to three petroleum refineries, which fuel the local economy. I was fortunate to receive an invitation from the American Petroleum Institute to come out as their guest and tour the ConocoPhillips refinery and meet a few of the local citizens to hear their thoughts on big oil.
Out of the three refineries located in Billings, one has a very unique story and position in the world of refining. The ConocoPhillips refinery is the first Energy Star certified refinery in the world (two years in a row). Not bad for an industry that is not highly regarded in public opinion given the current prices we are paying at the pump, but sustainability and environmental factors actually rank very high on the list of priorities for this tightly run operation.
Not only is ConocoPhillips the most energy efficient and least polluting out of the three, it was also the first to form a Citizen’s Advisory Council comprised of community members unafraid to speak up about their concerns with having a refinery located in town - the most prevalent, of course, being air quality control.
Stepping off of the plane (from LA granted), the air in Montana is crisp and clear, which is amazing given the fact that there are three refineries that are emitting sulfur and CO2 among other elements into the air. However, even walking around the Conoco plant, it was hard to smell any evidence of “refining” going on. The community members that I got to speak with (including Stella of local Stella’s Kitchen and Bakery fame) excessively praised the efforts of the Conoco team for this reason and for the EPA air quality reports (which I’ll post on later) showing ConocoPhillips leading the pack in terms of lowest amounts of Sulfur Dioxide and other irritants.
Few places on Earth are as untouched as the "Crown of the Continent" — a 10-million-acre expanse of mountains, valleys and prairies in Montana and Canada. The area has sustained all the same species — including grizzlies, lynx, moose and bull trout — for at least 200 years.
Now — in one of the most significant conservation sales in history — The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land have preserved 320,000 acres of forestlands in western Montana
[...]
By Carla Wise •
June 12, 2008
Seems like all the good food stories I find start with an amazingly dedicated person. Someone who decides to work on making things better, often as a volunteer. Someone with unusual passion and skill. The story I want to leave you with today probably started that way too, but I don’t know that for certain. What I do know is that three years into it, Grow Montana’s Food Corps has helped schools and colleges in Montana buy more local and Montana-grown food. They are helping revitalize the Montana food economy. And they provide an inspiration for what can be done at the state level.
The FoodCorps, staffed with 5 AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers, works with Montana farmers,
In many western states, landowners don’t necessarily own the minerals beneath their own property. This allows energies companies, in some cases, to drop in and drill. That doesn’t sit well with one wealthy Montana resident.
Forrest E. Mars, Jr. is the billionaire owner of the Mars Candy Company, the wonderful people who bring us treats like Snickers and M&Ms. He’s been a relatively secretive and private individual, but his sprawling Montana ranch - called Diamond Cross - also happens to sit near some of the largest natural gas and coal deposits in the country, including on the northern end of the Powder River Basin. So Mars and his $14 billion are joining ranchers and groups like the Northern Plains Resource Council to file a lawsuit to stop the companies’ operations.
Pinnacle Gas Resources is one of the energy companies that holds a lease on Mars’ land predating his ownership. Last week a judge ruled that Pinnacle could start drilling on Diamond Cross for coal-bed methane, a type of natural gas found in lodged in coal seams.
“Students are already interested in the environment and how to help what they perceive as the problems they’ll face when they join the workforce,” said Robb Larson of Montana State University. “So the goal is to get them thinking about wind and alternative energy as a career path.” And to help the students Montana State, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has named Montana State the home for a new Wind Applications Center. 
