Helena, Montana -based Policy Institute proposes state-wide energy conservation office

A think tank Wednesday proposed the state create a new energy-conservation office, which it said could produce “hundreds of millions of dollars” in economic benefits to Montana.

“Enormous economic gains can be obtained through conservation, and many of those gains are distributed widely among all citizens,” said Bob Decker, executive director of the Helena-based Policy Institute http://thepolicyinstitute.us/index.html .

The Institute said the new Office of Energy Conservation would employ four-to-six people and have an annual budget of $500,000 to $750,000. It would be funded by reinstating oil-and-gas taxes that were cut in 1999, the Institute said.

Decker said a state conservation office would help put into place recommendations from Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s Climate Change Advisory Committee — as well as complement the Schweitzer administration’s current energy policy, which mostly emphasizes energy development.

By MIKE DENNISON, IR State Bureau

Full Story: http://helenair.com/articles/2008/01/10/state/102st_080110_thinktank.txt

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