Victory Roundup MEIC saw successes during the 2025 Legislative Session: • Thanks to bi-partisan resistance, several bills to make judicial elections partisan failed. Additionally, proposals to create a “general claims” or “court of chancery” failed.
MEIC’s 2025 Lobbying Team from left to right: Shannon James, Laura Collins, Nick Fitzmaurice, Anne Hedges, Ben Catton, and Derf Johnson.
• Legislators coalesced around support for new and improved transmission projects to improve the electric system. • NorthWestern Energy supported bills to allow it to avoid Public Service Commission oversight, but those bills failed. • A number of bills aimed to cripple the wind industry in the state by forcing developers to pay outrageous bonds or severely restrict the location of wind turbines, but those failed. • SB 188, the Community Solar Act, and HB 477, a tiered phaseout of styrofoam food containers, made it to the Governor’s desk, a testament to the power of partnership between MEIC staff, business owners, partner organizations, and a dedicated membership. • Several positive interim study bills passed, including: a study of the causes of rising property insurance rates, an electricity transmission study, a study of interstate energy markets, and a study of Montana water quality in relation to toxic PFAS and endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Wins for Montanans’ Right to Know: • The Montana District Court ordered the Legislative Services Division to return to its long-held practice of providing legislative documents related to bill drafts to members of the public under the Montana Constitution’s right to know. • The Supreme Court ruled that Montana judges should prioritize government transparency and the Constitutional right-to-know when they consider awarding court fees to winning plaintiffs.
Clean Water Victory: • DEQ denied a petition filed by Lincoln County Commissioners that would have doubled the amount of allowable selenium pollution in Lake Koocanusa.