Missoula's 100% Clean Electricity Initiative

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Consultation has concluded

View the ongoing 100% Clean Electricity Project on Missoula County Voice.

Missoula is committed to addressing the climate change emergency by taking actionable steps that reduce carbon pollution while building a healthy, resilient community. In 2019, the City of Missoula, Missoula County, Climate Smart Missoula and other community partners began the ambitious journey of transitioning our community’s power supply to 100% clean electricity. This effort reflects the values and engagement of Missoula’s citizens coupled with local government leadership, listening and thoughtful planning. This page serves as our forum to share information and seek input from the community as we work toward 100% clean electricity for Missoula.

Getting Involved

Our team will use this page to ask and answer questions, provide updates, and gather feedback and stories. We hope you'll engage with us here, or at any of our in-person or virtual meetings and workshops. As these steps unfold, we'll be reaching out using this platform to get community feedback.


View the ongoing 100% Clean Electricity Project on Missoula County Voice.

Missoula is committed to addressing the climate change emergency by taking actionable steps that reduce carbon pollution while building a healthy, resilient community. In 2019, the City of Missoula, Missoula County, Climate Smart Missoula and other community partners began the ambitious journey of transitioning our community’s power supply to 100% clean electricity. This effort reflects the values and engagement of Missoula’s citizens coupled with local government leadership, listening and thoughtful planning. This page serves as our forum to share information and seek input from the community as we work toward 100% clean electricity for Missoula.

Getting Involved

Our team will use this page to ask and answer questions, provide updates, and gather feedback and stories. We hope you'll engage with us here, or at any of our in-person or virtual meetings and workshops. As these steps unfold, we'll be reaching out using this platform to get community feedback.


Consultation has concluded
  • Discussion of Public Comments on Draft Implementation Plan and Next Steps

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    In February, the city and county released a Draft Implementation Plan that had been developed jointly with NorthWestern Energy for input from the public. Fifty-five comments were received on the Draft Implementation Plan and are available here. Many thanks to all who submitted comments!

    Click here for a document prepared by city/county staff that discusses the main themes of the public comments and identifies next steps.

  • Comments Invited on Draft Implementation Plan

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    In June 2020, the City of Missoula and Missoula County entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with NorthWestern Energy in which the three parties committed to working together toward Missoula’s 100% clean electricity goal. Since then, the city and county have been working jointly with NorthWestern Energy, and with input from a number of subject matter experts, to develop the Implementation Plan required by the MOU. Today we’re glad to release the draft plan for input from the public. Click here to download the draft plan.


    The draft Implementation Plan contains six work plans on a variety of topics including utility-scale renewable energy, community-scale solar, energy efficiency, and pilot rate structures that have potential to facilitate the transition to a clean, modern electric grid. We see great value in all of these projects. However, the City and County also recognize that this Implementation Plan will not, on its own, achieve our 100% clean electricity goal. We remain committed to that goal and will actively seek additional partners and opportunities to achieve it.


    Please review the draft Implementation Plan and click here to share your thoughts with us by March 15, 2021. Looking ahead, there will be an additional opportunity for public comment when the Implementation Plan is scheduled for consideration at a public meeting of the City Council and Board of County Commissioners. Those details will be posted on this page when they’re available.

  • City of Missoula/Missoula County/NorthWestern Energy Memorandum of Understanding - Adopted 6/22/2020

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    NorthWestern Energy supplies 95% of the electricity consumed in the Missoula urban area, and we have been in conversation with NorthWestern since adopting our 100% Clean Electricity Resolution about the possibility of working together in pursuit of our goal. As a first step, we drafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city, the county, and NorthWestern. The MOU was considered in a joint virtual meeting of the Missoula City Council and Board of County Commissioners on June 22nd, 2020 and was adopted unanimously by both. You can view the MOU here.

    This MOU serves an important purpose, but we want to be clear that it’s just one step on the road to 100%. See below for more on what this MOU is, and what it isn’t.

    What it is. The MOU is a framework that articulates the commitment between the City of Missoula, Missoula County and NorthWestern Energy to work together toward Missoula’s 100% clean electricity goal, and creates a high-level structure to do so. It outlines the goals of the partnership and topics that we’ll work on together, and commits us to next steps and a timeline to do that work. It is an exciting step, but very big picture and high level. It is like a handshake to start a working relationship, but in writing, and social distancing friendly! We’re excited to do this publicly so that the community can witness the commitment of the three entities to work together in pursuit of our 100% clean electricity goal.

    What it isn’t, and what to look forward to. The MOU doesn’t contain the exciting project, program and policy details that we would all probably like to dive straight into. Fear not! The MOU commits us to developing an implementation plan that will contain those details. We’re excited to get there too, and will jump right in after the MOU is signed. We’ll keep you updated on those happenings here. In the meantime, if you have ideas about what the implementation plan should include, we want to hear them! Please share them using the Ideas tool.

  • Missoula's Story and Our Process

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    100% Clean Electricity for Missoula Origins

    The foundation of Missoula’s 100% Clean Electricity Initiative lies in our 2015 Community Climate Smart Action Plan, which established a goal of carbon neutrality for the Missoula urban area and outlined the vision, goals, and strategies to build environmental, economic, and social resilience and sustainability in our community. The plan was based on extensive public and private, cross sector input and expertise derived from a series of community conversations and “summits” convened by the City of Missoula and Climate Smart Missoula. Renewable energy was a critical focus area of that plan with a stated vision of “A Missoula area that is powered by renewable energy and where community members are engaged with and have control over affordable energy systems”.

    Over the years Missoula leaders and citizens made progress on renewable energy campaigns such as Solarize Missoula and the SolSmart Silver designation for both the City and County. While those were exciting steps, we always knew that a broader change in our energy system would be necessary to reach carbon neutrality. The urgency of making that change was reinforced by updated climate projections, including the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment and the 2018 Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    To meet this challenge, local government staff joined with Climate Smart Missoula, local experts, and citizens to develop a 100% Clean Electricity Options Report in 2018. The Options Report was the foundation for Missoula’s 100% Clean Electricity Resolution, which was adopted jointly and unanimously by the Missoula City Council and the Missoula Board of County Commissioners in 2019. The 100% Clean Electricity Resolution establishes the goal of powering our community by 100% clean electricity by 2030, along with an interim goal of 80% clean electricity by 2025.