House Bill 448 was a common-sense, bipartisan bill to lift an arbitrary, antiquated size limit for solar panel installations, meaning that schools, local governments, nonprofits and small businesses could make more of their own electricity from the sun.
That was before this bill was co-opted and mangled with a series of anti-solar amendments that stand to make Montana a national embarrassment. It sets a truly low bar for the legislative process.
Rumored falsehoods and half-baked fears that could be debunked with a five minute phone call to a solar manufacturer have become draft policy.
HB 448 as now written would impose absurd regulations on solar owners and deal a crushing blow to solar businesses that increasingly provide good jobs in Montana.
Whether you support solar, small businesses or just fact-based decision-making, please contact your senator and urge them to oppose HB 448.
Marshall Swearingen Livingston
Bozeman Daily Chronicle Letter to the Editor 4/23/21