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Up one levelHundreds show support for new rail route
HELENA - An effort to restore rail passenger service through southern Montana brought people from around the state to a Helena meeting of the Montana Association of Railroad Passengers. More than 50 people shoehorned into the conference room of the Chamber of Commerce Building for Friday's meeting. "It just shows you that people in Montana and across the nation need another choice, and that there should be some changes to our transportation system," said Michael Ackley of Missoula, vice president of the association.
Coal industry ups its donations in election year
Facing a bruising fight over climate change, the coal industry is on the political offensive this election year to ensure that no matter who wins in November, so does coal. Billions of dollars in corporate profits are at stake for the companies that mine, ship and burn the nation's most abundant domestic fuel. Some powerful Washington voices, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, have lined up against coal-fired power, which churns out two billions tons of greenhouse gases annually.
Great Falls Wind Farm to Begin Construction
Construction of the state's largest wind farm is scheduled to begin this spring 85 miles north of Great Falls
Gazette: MT Primary May Be Key
By CHARLES S. JOHNSON Gazette State Bureau HELENA - With the intense Democratic battle for president, some political observers are wondering if Montana's late, and usually irrelevant, June primary might play a decisive national role in determining whether Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the party's nomination.
AP: Fuel-maker offers more for camelina
Competition from surging grain prices prompted a Bigfork biofuels developer to announce Friday it will boost its contract price for the oilseed crop camelina. Great Plains - The Camelina Co. is one of two groups with plans to produce a combined 200 million gallons of biofuels annually from camelina within the next two to three years.
Corridor proposal doesn't answer eminent domain questions
According to today's Helena IR, "The question of whether the private landowners could be forced to allow the [transmission line] corridors to cross their land — invoking eminent domain — hasn’t been answered, and officials have said it probably won’t be until actual projects are proposed for a corridor."
Western Issues to Be Elevated in 2008
According to the Rocky Mountain News, "States like Iowa and New Hampshire might be hogging the national spotlight in the presidential contest, but the road to the White House must lead through more ethnically-diverse Western states," [...] "If you want to win the presidency next year, you have to win the West."
Farm to pulpit. Montana's new ag director brings it all back home.
Missoula Independent story on the "increasing political might of farmers in Montana's Democratic Party."
