NorthWestern Energy's gas-fired Yellowstone Generating Station will use 18 reciprocating internal combustion engines to produce power. The $310 plant near Laurel is expected to be fully operational this month.
NorthWestern Energy is resuming construction of its gas-fired power plant in Laurel following a court decision lifting a stay on the project.
Yellowstone Judge Michael Moses lifted the stay Thursday citing recent changes to environmental law by the Montana Legislature and recent a Supreme Court ruling limiting the court remedies to state violations of permitting law.
The utility said Friday it will resume construction as soon as possible. The 175-megawatt power plant should be operational in 2024.
In April, Moses ordered construction of power plant halted, ruling that state regulators ignored environmental risks when permitting the facility in 2021. Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality had “failed to take a hard look concerning two environmental issues,” namely the impacts of the gas-fired power plant’s emissions of greenhouse gases, and light pollution from the power plant.
What followed the Moses order was a scramble by the Montana Legislature’s Republican majority to ban state agencies from reviewing carbon dioxide emissions. The State Supreme Court in a separate case concluded that stays, like the one imposed on Laurel, were beyond the remedies allowed when courts address violations of the Montana Environmental Policy Act. MEPA, as the policy act is known, spells out how permitting reviews take place.
In lifting the stay Thursday, Moses concluded that the April 7 order halting construction no longer aligned with state law.
The judge declined to take up whether the Legislature’s new ban on reviewing greenhouse gases was unconstitutional. That decision is now in the purview of the Montana Supreme Court, Moses said, because both NorthWestern and the plaintiffs — Montana Environmental Information Center and Sierra Club — have appealed the April 7 order.
In responding to Moses earlier order that DEQ analyze carbon dioxide emissions and light pollution, DEQ submitted analysis of the latter, but cited the new law in choosing not to assess carbon pollution.
NorthWestern Energy's gas-fired Yellowstone Generating Station will use 18 reciprocating internal combustion engines to produce power. The $310 plant near Laurel is expected to be fully operational this month.
