Page 25 - Flathead Beacon // 5.25.16

megawatt-hour for solar electricity and has requested that rate be dropped to $34. The utility argues that entering con- tracts with solar providers at the current rate will mean higher electricity bills for 360,000 Montana customers.
Kathi Montgomery, who is the renew- able energy specialist with the state Department of Environmental Quality’s Energy Bureau, said that if the rate is cut in half, many proposed projects will stall.
NorthWestern has signed ve 25-year contracts with Cypress Creek Renew- ables of Santa Monica, California, for 14 megawatts of solar power from sep- arate farms outside Missoula, Helena, Townsend, Hardin and Reedpoint. The deals are the state’s rst solar power pur- chase agreements between a solar devel- oper and a utility, Montgomery said.
Ten to 20 projects are in some stage of development statewide, with the com- panies leasing land or attempting to get building and storm-water permits and approval from counties where zoning changes might be necessary, Montgom- ery said.
“We have a really good solar resource,” she said. “We don’t have as many cloudy days as other places have. Even when it’s really cold here in the winter, it’s still sunny.”
Photovoltaic solar panels are more e cient in cold temperatures, she said. The cost of solar equipment has come down substantially in the past few years, Montgomery added.
HELENA
5. Wages, Jobs Lead Governor’s
Race as Campaign Reports Filed
Money, wages and jobs dominated Montana’s gubernatorial race this week, as Gov. Steve Bullock and Republican Greg Gianforte led their latest cam- paign nance reports and as both con- tinued to make high-paying jobs a central issue of the campaign.
Gianforte loaned his gubernatorial campaign $150,000, while racking up more than $100,000 in donations in recent weeks, according to campaign nance reports led May 23 with the Commissioner of Political Practices. The loans add to the $272,000 Gianforte has given his campaign in his attempt to derail Gov. Steve Bullock’s bid for a sec- ond term.
The ling deadline is the rst follow- ing last week’s ruling by a federal judge invalidating contribution limits set by voters in 1994, opening the way for unlimited campaign contributions by political parties and substantially higher limits for political action committees.
But the reporting period, which cov- ers from April 27 through May 18, barely overlapped the rst two days of the limits now in e ect. Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl said he did not expect any of the campaign statements being led on May 23 to re ect a poten- tial surge of money.
According to his nance statement, Gianforte had $375,000 left in the bank after spending about $239,000 during the reporting period.
Bullock’s campaign had yet to le its report but announced that more than $111,000 in donations had come in during recent weeks, with more than $1.2 mil- lion in cash on hand. Since launching his re-election bid, the governor has raised more than $1.8 million.
Gianforte has raised $1.1 million, his campaign said.
As both men seek the governor’s job, Bullock and Gianforte have been criss- crossing the state promoting job creation.
Bullock traveled to Billings to talk about health care workforce develop- ment, while Gianforte unveiled a website he says will help bridge the “disconnect between educational pursuits and jobs.”
BOZEMAN
6. Regents Approve Naming Montana
State School After Gianforte
The state Board of Regents has approved renaming Montana State Uni- versity’s computer science department after Republican gubernatorial candi- date Greg Gianforte.
University o cials say the Bozeman technology entrepreneur’s family foun- dation pledged a total of $8 million to MSU, $5 million of which will go toward an endowment for the new Gianforte School of Computing.
Another $2 million will go toward construction projects on the univer- sity’s south campus and $1 million for the current use of the computer science department.
The regents unanimously approved the proposal May 20 during its meeting at MSU-Northern in Havre.
Democrats oppose MSU naming the school after Gianforte. Three legislators say they will introduce a bill next year to bar naming buildings and schools after candidates.
WINIFRED
7. New Horned Dinosaur Species
Discovered in Montana by Amateur
A novice fossil collector’s lucky nd in a remote Montana badlands more than a decade ago has turned out to be a new kind of spectacularly-horned dinosaur, researchers announced May 18.
The bones unearthed near Winifred represent a previously-unknown spe- cies of dinosaur that lived 76 million years ago.
Its scienti c name is Spiclypeus ship- porum (spi-CLIP-ee-us ship-OR-um) but it’s been nicknamed “Judith,” after the Judith River rock formation where it was found in 2005 by retired nuclear physicist Bill Shipp.
Canadian Museum of Nature pale- ontologist Jordan Mallon says Judith is closely-related to the well-known Tricer- atops. Both had horned faces and elabo- rate head frills, although Judith’s horns stick out sideway instead of over the eyes.
Like Triceratops, Judith was a plant- eater, approximately 15-feet long and weighing up to four tons, Mallon said.
Shipp told The Associated Press that he stumbled across what turned out to be Judith’s femur bone in 2005.
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