Steve Bullock has already been criticized for raising nearly $5 million in dark money from anti-coal and anti-Keystone Pipeline activists. Now, another anti-coal special interest group- Montana Conservation Voters- is spending big bucks to back Bullock. The MCV is reportedly planning to spend $500,000 campaigning against the pro-coal and pro-Colstrip candidate Greg Gianforte.
Montanans are no doubt appalled at the fact that Bullock would stand alongside an anti-jobs group like Montana Conservation Voters. As evidence of their anti-coal views, the MCV is even opposing a Northern Cheyenne tribal member, labor union leader, and Colstrip worker named Jason Small simply because he is opposed to Obama's Clean Power Plan.
New information also came to light Tuesday revealing more connections between MCV and anti-coal efforts. As Count on Coal reported, MCV received contributions of $100,000 in 2013 and $110,000 in 2015 from a group called the Brainerd Foundation. Those gifts are listed on Brainerd's web site:
If you look at Brainerd's front page on their web site, the #1 "recent success" they list is shutting down Colstrip.
Brainerd has also given to MEIC (the group suing to shut down Colstrip) $287,000 over the last five years.
For their attack ads against Greg Gianforte, the MCV received money from the League of Conservation Voters, one of the main groups that blocked the Keystone XL Pipeline which would have brought in tens of millions of dollars to Eastern Montana counties.
This comes on the heels of the devastating news that Montana received last month. Talen Energy and the 5 electric utilities that make up the ownership of the Colstrip Power Plant announced yesterday that they will close units 1 and 2 of the Colstrip Power Plant by 2022 as part of a settlement with radical environmental groups. The closure will mean job losses, major uncertainty for the community of Colstrip, and large increases for wholesale power prices.
"The closure of at least two of Montana’s coal-fired power plants in Colstrip became a reality Tuesday, as plant owners agreed to close units 1 and 2 by mid-2022 to settle a lawsuit alleging clean-air violations at the facilities.
The plant owners – wholesale power marketer Talen Energy and five electric utilities in the Northwest -- and the two environmental groups that sued the owners in 2013 announced the settlement Tuesday afternoon." -MTN News, 7/12/2016
Meanwhile, Governor Bullock took campaign contributions from board members of both the Montana Environmental Center and the Sierra Club, the two groups who filed the suit to close Colstrip 1 and 2.
From MEIC:
Greg Lind (Missoula) - $1,300 to Steve Bullock 2016, $1260 in 2012From the Sierra Club's Montana Executive Committee:
Bob Ream (Helena) -$300 to Steve Bullock in 2016, $1260 in 2012
Jennifer Swearingen (Bozeman) - $200 to SB in 2016, $650 in 2012
John Rundquist Treasurer (Helena) - $250 Steve Bullock 2012
Alexis Bonogofsky (Billings) -$350 Steve Bullock (2012)
Teresa Brock - $100 to SB in 2016
Mike Scott (staff) - $400 to SB in 2016 (there are two Michael Scott's in the database, but the other donated $40 in 2012)
Bob Clark - $100 to SB in 2016, $25 in 2012
ICYMI-Governor Bullock endorsed Hillary Clinton for President, who promises a radical anti-coal, anti-gun agenda for Montana and the nation.
“…we’re gonna put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business”-Hillary Clinton, on CNN, 3/13/2016
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