Schweitzer touts Montana’s energy potential, economy

MISSOULA — Gov. Brian Schweitzer touted the state’s economy and energy potential in speeches here and in Billings.

“The economic conditions have never been better in Montana,” Schweitzer told City Club Missoula members Monday night. “We have the lowest unemployment rate in the history of our state. If you have a job to fill, you can’t find people.”

But he said the prosperity doesn’t extend to eastern Montana.

“In eastern Montana, the towns are getting smaller and the age of the population is getting greater and the bright kids are leaving because there are no opportunities for them,” Schweitzer said.

Schweitzer then pushed his plan to develop new energy sources in eastern Montana, from the traditional such as coal, to wind power and biofuels.

On the western side of the state, Schweitzer said growth lies in bio and information technologies.

Schweitzer said the Legislature must help make Montana business-friendly to those industries.

Schweitzer suggested that Missoula will surpass Billings as the state’s largest city by 2007 or 2008. He said the challenge to western Montana will be to manage the growth so that people will still want to live there.

“We’re called the Treasure State and for the first 75 years it was because of our copper and coal and our minerals,” Schweitzer said. “We thought that was the treasure, but what we’ve discovered is it’s not because of the minerals in the mountain, but the mountain itself. Don’t choke off that investment. People will come here as long as it’s better than the place they are leaving.”

“Do it right,” Schweitzer said. “Make sure we build houses and roads and communities in a way that we can all be proud.”

“Montana’s economy is moving at a rate that is unprecedented,” he said. “Let’s make sure we do it while maintaining our real treasures — the land, the water and our people.”

Schweitzer made a similar speech in Billings Monday, welcoming a national conference on abandoned mines. He said he sees 10,000 jobs and great potential for eastern Montana’s land, wind, coal, oil and natural gas.

Schweitzer said when he took office, even tiny Rhode Island had more wind power than Montana. But he predicted that Montana will be a leader in wind energy by the end of his term.

He also urged the development of coal-to-liquid fuel technologies. Schweitzer said that carbon dioxide, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, could be injected into the ground or marketed for use in reviving old oil wells by pumping it into oil-bearing formations.