Missoula moves closer to statewide green power program

The city of Missoula and Missoula County are set to move forward with their proposed green power program, a significant step toward a joint goal of transitioning the community’s power supply to 100% clean electricity, officials said this week. 

The program, also known as a green tariff, would allow NorthWestern Energy customers statewide to voluntarily subscribe to clean energy from a renewable energy source in Montana. The agreement the local governments are set to approve Monday is the last step before the communities and NorthWestern will submit the program to the Montana Public Service Commission for review. 

“I’m just thrilled that we’re at this point where we’re one step closer to delivering sustainable energy and energy choices to our constituents and able to meet our community’s green energy goals,” Mayor Andrea Davis said during a Missoula City Council committee meeting Wednesday.  

The City Council Wednesday preliminarily approved the agreement, which outlines the roles and responsibilities for each community and NorthWestern in bringing the program to the Montana Public Service Commission and the process for soliciting proposals to design the project. The council and the Board of County Commissioners will vote on the agreement during a joint meeting at 6 p.m. Monday. The Bozeman City Commission unanimously approved the agreement Tuesday.

In 2019, the city and county set a joint goal of powering the Missoula urban area with100% clean electricity by 2030. The green power program is the most significant opportunity available to governments to meet that goal, bringing the community about 10% closer to 100%, said Anne Geiger, the city’s strategic initiatives manager. The community is a little under 60% of the way to its goal now, Svein Newman, Missoula County’s climate action program manager, told Montana Free Press. The city and county, along with the city of Bozeman, have been working on establishing the statewide green power program since at least 2018. 

As of 2023, 30 states had utility green tariff programs, with some offering more than one, according to the CorporateEnergy Buyers Association. Shannon Anderson, the city’s energy specialist, said this type of program is common because it works. 

“This is proven to be a very strong approach to drive the buildout of new renewable energy resources, especially among commercial and institutional buyers who are intentionally choosing to purchase clean energy,” she said. 

Newman told the council it’s unclear what type of renewable energy resource will be built for the program, but it will be capped at 50 megawatts. A 50 megawatt wind farm, for example, could power about 20,000 homes, he told MTFP. NorthWestern would own and operate the resource, located in Montana, and local governments and commercial or industrial businesses would subscribe to it, Newman said. Residential customers could subscribe annually if their local municipality authorized it under its own subscription, he said. 

NorthWestern would pay the upfront costs, and subscribers would pay a share of the renewable resource’s cost over time and receive the market price of that power as a credit on their bill. Newman said it’s too early to say what the program’s rates would be; however, the program is self-contained, meaning no one who did not voluntarily subscribe is subsidizing or being subsidized by it. 

Charles Lane, NorthWestern’s director of regulatory affairs for Montana, told the council one of the primary objectives of the program was to make it self-sufficient to demonstrate to the PSC that there are no cost shifts  

“At its core, the green power program really is about customer options,” he said. “This has been a long, but thorough, process to get where we are today, and I think this reflects a clear interest in having additional opportunities for our customers, including communities, commercial, industrial customers and also residential customers within those communities to advance sustainability objectives.” 

The agreement sets the date to file the program proposal with the Public Service Commission as on or before Sept. 15. It’s unclear how long the PSC review will take, Geiger said. If the PSC approves the proposal, the communities will have 180 days to recruit eligible customers who would submit a notice of interest to NorthWestern Energy, she said. Several steps would follow before the city and county would decide whether to purchase energy through the program and before the project is built, Geiger said. 

Several city council members spoke in support of moving the program forward after years of effort. 

“I think this is a really smart move for us, joining the rest of the states around the country that have this program and several that are already expanding this because of its success,” Council Member Eric Melson said. “This gives people the freedom and the choice. We’re not mandating this for anybody, but it does give them the opportunity and the option.”

This story was updated July 27, 2026 to correct the name of the Corporate Energy Buyers Association.

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