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Can Green Technology Propel Economic Development in Montana?

With states looking to kick-start their economic engines, green technology is increasingly viewed as the piston helping drive it.

Traveling east along U.S. Highway 12 from Helena, Mont., it’s entirely possible to drive for an hour or more without seeing another human. Windswept plains dotted by curiously named hamlets wait for signs of life to come careening down the mostly empty road.

Past Townsend, a small burg on the southern tip of Canyon Ferry Lake, the deer on the highway far outnumber vehicles; and when dusk settles in, they prove much more dangerous. But the farther east you travel, the more you notice one particular man-made structure — electric transmission towers. Specifically cross-like high-voltage direct current towers, which stand in stark contrast to the empty land that spreads in every direction.

The towers eventually terminate in an area known as Judith Gap, notable for its name and not much else. That is, until recently, when from the waving grasses and grazing cattle rose 90 masts looming hundreds of feet in the air. But here there are no sails whipping, no ropes cracking; rather atop these mammoth masts sit wind turbines, each with three enormous blades that turn gently in Big Sky country.

In Montana, the abundance of both wind and state incentives have drawn investment from renewable energy companies like Chicago-based Invenergy and Spanish firm NaturEner. These and other companies say they find the state an ideal place to do business.

By Chad Vander Veen

Full Story: http://www.governing.com/article/can-green-technology-propel-economic-development

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