Biomass company said to be interested in shuttered Smurfit-Stone facility in Frenchtown, Montana

Montana would be well served to learn from states like Wisconsin and Maine, where the states’ environmentalists and business leaders have learned to work together. She points to the Flambeau River Paper mill in Park Falls, Wis., as a prime example.

Ever since Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. announced it was closing the Frenchtown linerboard mill, the phone has been ringing at the Missoula Area Economic and Development Corp. http://www.maedc.org

The most tantalizing call came from a Missoula resident who works for a private company that is developing biomass projects in other states, said Dick King, MAEDC executive director.

Although the company isn’t yet ready to be publicly named, King describes the query as “a very credible entity” and a “national player in energy that has a major initiative with biomass.”

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

http://www.missoulian.com/news/local/article_5aa0de84-f82d-11de-b403-001cc4c002e0.html