YELLOWSTONE BEND CITIZENS COUNCIL

Tackling Climate-Disrupting Methane Right Here in Livingston

4/3/2021

It turns out there are several greenhouse gasses causing our planet to overheat and destabilizing our planet. We've all heard of CO2 but another gas, methane, can be up to 34 times more powerful than CO2. What does that mean for us here in Livingston? It turns out we can reduce methane LOCALLY. That's because methane escapes from rotting food in landfills. Food scraps from our tables and buried in our landfills are a big cause of climate change.

Composting food solves this problem and we can do it! Some of us are using Bokashi (a product with a base like wheat bran plus the micro organism EM1) to compost our food waste while releasing NO methane! Our composted food goes right into our garden soil, making healthier food.

YBCC is beginning to discuss ways to support large scale food (and green waste) composting in our town. If you would like to join that effort, contact Katherine Dunlap: kdunlap406@gmail.com. If you want to jump in with your own home composting, contact Joanie: joankresich@gmail.com

The power to help stabilize our climate is right here, in our gardens and our community composting systems. Let's tap that power!

-Joanie Kresich

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A SOLAR TOUR OF LIVINGSTON February 21st, 2021

2/21/2021

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Touring Livingston is a great way to see how solar energy can benefit our entire community.

Stepping inside the library you’ll see everyone is there, older people reading periodicals, and people of all ages using the internet and checking out books. There’s a meeting in the community room and a group of youth gather in the teen room.  The savings reaped from the library solar array are benefitting every one of these people!

Down Main Street, we can visit our Park County Senior Center with 24 low income apartments, and an enormous waiting list.  We don’t have near enough housing for our many fixed income seniors.  The solar savings at the Center plays a big role in keeping this wonderful center humming.

Next is our Gateway Museum.  Museums everywhere are finding it hard to fund themselves.  Our area’s history is a big source of pride and the solar energy cost savings are helping preserve and protect this history for all of us.

We’ll stop at the Shane Center for the Preforming Arts, a vibrant hub that that serves hundreds of us each year.  Energy cost savings from a solar array appear as all sort of performances, classes and events, expanding our horizons in multiple ways.

Our Wastewater Treatment Plant is treating our water all day every day.  It’s our biggest county expense.  Savings from the new solar array means savings for every county resident!

Our last stop is the Livingston Head Start where the joyful sound of children’s voices meets us. Our Head Start gets our these children off to a strong start with excellent programming and all sorts of supports for their families. The savings from the new solar array turn right around to keep this center strong.

Joanie Kresich, YBCC co-chair

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CONSERVATION AND CLIMATE: NATURAL ALLIES

10/14/2020

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Using smoke as a messenger, the new climate-induced intensity of wildfires has spread the alarm well past the places where the fires are raging.  Here in Livingston MT, as smoke from western states descended on our small town and particulate matter soared we had the sense we were on the front lines. And in a real way we were, because we are all on the front lines of the climate emergency now.  The belief that our obligation is solely to protect the grandeur of this place has been challenged; what if what we manage to protect turns out to be vulnerable to the sharp incisors of climate change?

The entire Greater Yellowstone ecosystem has a long and honorable tradition of conservation. Early white explorers spread the word about a fantastic land filled with geologic and wildlife wonders.  Artists flocked to the area to paint and photograph those wonders.  And all of America wrapped itself in a great shawl of pride. The imprint of this sense of wonder was so great, Yellowstone was set aside as the first national park. So much beauty, so much grandeur seemed itself to foster the idea of protection and conservation.

And for over a hundred and fifty years individuals and groups took up the banner and fought to protect not just the Park but all the surrounding areas. These protectors created rich traditions and a web of relationships that continue to this day.  Anyone who is driven to protect this stunning place can find a way to fit in with one of the well-established organizations that have been advocating, educating, and fighting for conservation for decades

Climate protectors are recent arrivals. We are just beginning to build local groups to address climate change where we live. We’re building connections with neighbors and friends who want to take action on climate. We’re interacting with our local and state  governments and learning how to have an impact there. But we don’t have decades to get ourselves off the ground.  And that’s where the active support from conservationists will be critical.

The wellsprings of love of place that send people to work on conservation or climate are one and the same. We are essentially the right and left hands in one body.  Many of the climate activists I know originally had a home in conservation groups and continue to support them.  Our climate work is getting stronger as more conservationists join us as supporters. Our alliance is the best hope we have to protect both the places we love and a stable climate all life depends on.

Joanie Kresich, YBCC co-chair

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Jenny Harbine: Legal and Grassroots Advocacy

12/13/2019

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Jenny Harbine: Grassroots and Legal Advocacy

Jenny Harbine, a lawyer with Earthjustice, speaking at our December meeting, held everyone’s attention as she explored the way grassroots and legal advocacy work in tandem. We are the grassroots part of the equation!

How timely this message was!  We had just heard the great news that the PSC turned down NWE’s request for an unfair fee on residential solar that would have stopped our solar industry here in MT dead in its tracks.  This time, grassroots organizing did the job by itself, but had the ruling gone another way, we would have needed a lawsuit!

Our grassroots organizing efforts have at their very core the spirit of democracy. We accomplish our work collectively using all the tools that our democracy provides, helping keep it alive.

Thank you Jenny!  We’re grateful for your commitment to preserving our unparalleled Montana ecosystems, and for Earthjustice for making sure there  is a lawyer when grassroots work falls short.

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Montana a Leader in Clean Energy? It’s Possible!

9/8/2019

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Northeast of Livingston a groundbreaking project is ready to break ground!

The Gordon Butte Pumped Hydro Storage (GB) project is fully permitted and has recently acquired investors. The GB project makes use of a little known and barely used carbon neutral system for energy storage and generation.  Once built, GB will make room for a flood of new renewable energy to be seamlessly integrated onto the MT grid.

Gordon Butte turns out to be a perfect site for pumped storage.  On top of the butte, there will be one lake, and at the bottom (a drop of 1000 ft) there will be another.

Once the lakes are filled and the powerhouse constructed, GB will take energy off the grid (just a few miles away) when there is too much to run the pumps, pushing water to the upper lakes.  When there is too little energy, the generators will come online and generate energy for the grid.

This adroit switching between generating and storing energy will take place within minutes, making the GB an innovator in pumped hydro storage. Keeping the right amount of electricity on the gird is critical; GB will act as a ‘shock absorber’.

Our utility tells us that renewable energy creates problems because it is unreliable; the sun stops shining at night, and wind speeds vary. GB will solve this problem, while stabilizing the grid minute to minute and generating energy.  And all of this adds NO CARBON to our atmosphere.

As of this writing NWE is not negotiating with GB to buy the electricity.  That’s both puzzling and frustrating.

Check out this remarkable project here: https://gordonbuttepumpedstorage.com/project-overview/what-is-pumped-storage-hydro/

-Joanie Kresich, YBCC co-chair
Sept. 2019

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