NORTHERN PLAINS RESOURCE COUNCIL
220 S 27th St Ste A, Billings, MT 59101 www.northernplains.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: Northern Plains Resource Council organizes Montanans to protect our water, land, air, and working landscapes; support a healthy, localized, and sustainable economy; and build strong grassroots leaders, always considering the next generation.

Agriculture and Local Food: We convened a major group of stakeholders (the Statewide Soil Health Convening Group) with organizations, agencies, and producers to develop priorities for soil health in Montana, and convened the group's policy committee throughout the year. We hosted the 2020 Soil Summit, drawing more than 120 participants who learned from soil experts how we can advance soil health policy in Montana. We held the 5th Annual Montana Local Food Challenge to raise statewide support for local food producers and vendors. We built public support for farm-to-school programs in Miles City and other eastern Montana communities, and met with education opinion leaders and decision makers in southeast Montana. We co-sponsored (with Montana Farmers Union) a Montana gubernatorial debate and congressional debate on agriculture issues for candidates from both major political parties. We advanced our country-of-origin labeling campaign by working with the Montana Farmers Union and the Montana Cattlemen's Association to draft our Montana Country-of-Origin Labeling bill for the 2021 legislative session. We continued to serve as advisors and provide fiscal sponsorship for the Yellowstone Valley Food Hub.

Clean Energy and Climate Change: Northern Plains saved residential solar in Montana by generating hundred of comments, giving in-person testimony, holding rallies, and earning media that ultimately pressured the Public Service Commission to oppose NorthWestern Energy's $35million rate increase, part of which was increasing rates to make residential solar uneconomical. We challenged NorthWestern Energy's 20-year Resource Procurement Plan, which included a secret plan to acquire a greater ownership interest in the deteriorating Unit 4 power plant at Colstrip. We pressured the PSC to deny "pre-approval" for the Colstrip acquisition through a "Ratepayer Rebellion" rally, a webinar, listening sessions in Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, & Helena, earned media, and testifying in support of a clean energy future for Montana. In preparation for the 2021 legislative session, we met with the Montana Facility Finance Authority, Montana Nonprofit Association, Montana Credit Unions Association, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, City of Bozeman, and others to firm up their support for Property Assessed Clean Energy legislation. We organized Tongue River Electric Co-op members (many of whom live on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation) to identify unfair billing and other practices that endanger rural people who rely on electricity for their water wells and other necessities. We organized Park Electric Cooperative members to petition their co-op board for mail-in election ballots for board elections. We hosted an online presentation by climate leader Bill McKibben for hundreds of Montanans and members across the country. We organized affiliate groups to begin conducting residential solar assessments and pool resources to make residential solar both more affordable and more accessible.

Coal and Coal Transition: We held monthly meetings with staff and leadership at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality as well as the Governor's office, to make the case for thorough groundwater cleanup at Colstrip. We met face-to-face with numerous residents in the Colstrip area each month, including union members, ranchers, and other people. With a large mailing, house parties, email and social media, we generated 1,100 public comments on the coal ash cleanup plan that Talen Energy submitted to the DEQ for Colstrip. With the Western Organization of Resource Councils, we won a federal lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management that requires the BLM to consider the impacts of climate change in its resource management plans as it undertakes future coal leasing. Many individuals were directly engaged in this effort by writing declarations of how the leasing would impact their farms, ranches, & recreation.

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