Commissioner Bob Lake, of Missoula, who voted to grant NorthWestern its waiver, said before voting that the local ownership requirement stemmed from expectations that Anaconda or Darby might build a wood-burning power generator to thin excessive fuel in nearby forests. Those wood projects never materialized, said Lake, who was in the Legislature when the CREP law was written. The local ownership has proven problematic since then.

But the thought of NorthWestern buying an existing project from someone else didn’t make sense to Billings Commissioner Tony O’Donnell, who joined Lake in giving NorthWestern a pass. If the CREP already exists, O’Donnell reasoned, how could NorthWestern buying it promote renewable energy?

“It doesn’t advance the existence of renewables. It doesn’t advance any of the community renewable standards in terms of the community,” O’Donnell said. “It doesn’t really change anything. So a suggestion like that simply would suggest it is a shell game.”

O’Donnell said NorthWestern shouldn’t even have to attempt to comply with the law, which he said was badly constructed. He said giving NorthWestern a pass would send a message to the Legislature that it should eliminate the Community Renewable Energy Project law and perhaps try again.