First appeared on FOX: Montana’s Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana, have sounded the alarm about the Biden administration’s “war” on energy, warning that it is negatively impacting certain communities in the state and the nation as a whole.
The two Republican officials are scheduled to travel to the Rosebud Mine in Colstrip on Tuesday night to hold a roundtable discussion with Montana energy industry leaders about the impact of recent regulations put in place by the Biden administration to phase out coal production in the state.
“Joe Biden has made it clear he would rather appease the demands of far-left activists than address the price hike crisis he helped create,” Gianforte said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Cheap coal-generated electricity keeps the lights on in Montana and powers manufacturing across the nation. Today we call on the President to end the war on coal that is raising costs, threatening the reliability of our electric grid and destroying jobs.”
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From left: Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, President Biden and Senator Steve Daines. (Getty Images)
Daines echoed Gianforte, claiming that President Biden and his administration are “bent on destroying energy communities in parts of Montana.”
“Joe Biden is doing everything he can to crush Colstrip and Montana-made energy, from the EPA’s new MATS and Clean Power Plan 2.0 rules that directly threaten the Colstrip Generating Station, to his ban on new coal leases in eastern Montana that threatens the Rosebud Coal Mine,” Daines said. “The current administration is determined to shut down the community of Colstrip, and I will be fighting the radical left and Biden’s anti-energy policies every day.”
The roundtable discussion between the two men, scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm Mountain Time, will take place in the context of the Biden administration’s recently released Resource Management Plan amendments, which would ban the acquisition of coal mining rights in eastern Montana through 2038.
The governor’s office said the rule is the latest in a series of regulations the Biden administration is using to “target Colstrip and coal-fired power generation.”
According to the Governor’s Office, Colstrip Generating Station provides a significant percentage of Montana’s baseload electricity supply and is consistently ranked as the lowest-cost dispatchable power plant in the Western United States.
The 25,000-acre Rosebud mine produces approximately 6-8 million tons of coal to power four adjacent coal-fired power plants, which together produce enough electricity to power approximately 500,000 homes.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and Sen. Steve Daines met with business owners at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Missoula in June 2023. (Montana Governor Greg Gianforte)
The Biden administration’s efforts will also have a negative impact on jobs in the state, as the Colstrip Generating Station employs about 360 Montanans and the Rosebud Mine employs another 370.
According to NorthWestern Energy’s Integrated Resource Plan, new rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency could force the facility’s generating units to retire early, costing Montana customers more than $1.1 billion over the next 20 years.
During Tuesday night’s debate, Governor Gianforte is expected to call the new rules an “unacceptable burden on Montanans” and note that the restrictions are being implemented at a time when “historic inflation and skyrocketing mortgage interest rates are eating away at paychecks.”
Prices continued to rise in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Since Biden took office in January 2021, the energy index has risen by more than 30%.
“Energy is a necessity, not a luxury, in Montana, and each year our severe winter weather serves as a reminder of the need for a holistic energy approach and reliable baseload power,” Gianforte said.
When the Biden administration’s latest regulations were announced earlier this month, Gianforte says He called the move “nothing more than a gift to China and our adversaries, and an insult to hardworking Montanans.”
Since President Biden took office in January 2021, the energy index has increased by more than 30%. (Erin Kirkland/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“President Biden must prioritize the needs of American consumers and workers, not the ideological agenda of the far left,” he said at the time.
Last week, Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee said the Biden administration’s energy policies are fueling rising gasoline prices, uncertainty in the U.S. power sector and the economic downturn. New cars and appliancesand costly regulatory hurdles are increasing costs for American consumers and businesses.
