{"id":12398,"date":"2016-05-30T08:39:17","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T14:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=12398"},"modified":"2016-06-26T22:38:19","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T04:38:19","slug":"montana-ethic-project-wind-energy-business-and-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/05\/montana-ethic-project-wind-energy-business-and-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Ethic Project: Wind energy, business and politics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Beltrone\"<\/a>

Joey and Libbie Early<\/p>

Peggy Beltrone, president of Exergy Integrated Systems.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is the 13th\u00a0chapter of the 32-part video series \u201cThe Montana Ethic Project.\u201d This chapter features Peggy Beltrone, president of Exergy Integrated Systems in Great Falls, speaking on “Montana Wind Energy\u2014Business and Politics.”<\/p>\n

You can watch the whole video below. Here is how it begins:<\/p>\n

“One of my pet sayings is that, ‘If you know one community, you know one community. If you know one\u00a0tribal nation, you know one tribal nation. If you know one thing, you know one thing. You don\u2019t know\u00a0everything.’<\/p>\n

“That being said I\u2019m going to share a few of those things\u2014lessons I have learned over my years in\u00a0Montana.<\/p>\n

“I spent 30 years in Montana working in television news, in my own business, in non-profits, in elected\u00a0office, and now I\u2019m back to working in private enterprise. When I was in college I had decided I wanted\u00a0to be a television reporter. I had an interest in politics, in speech and debate, and in reporting. Frankly I\u00a0couldn\u2019t spell. This was before spell checkers. There was just no way I was going to be a print journalist\u00a0and have to carry around a dictionary. I was just a bad speller. So TV was my home.”<\/p>\n

Here is another, edited excerpt from Beltrone’s presentation<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“When we were working on the Montana Alberta Tie-Line we had public hearings. We had the Chambers\u00a0of Commerce from communities all along where the transmission line would be located. We brought out\u00a0teachers and businessmen and community leaders and had hearings. They all talked about how much of\u00a0a great project this would be, how much revenue it would bring.<\/p>\n

“We did not realize, I did not realize at\u00a0the time, that we weren\u2019t listening to the real objections the farmers and ranchers had. They were\u00a0saying there were for wind energy. But they said this was disrupting their farming operations. They were\u00a0hearing they weren\u2019t valued. …<\/p>\n

“They were hearing me say that this company that was coming in and\u00a0going across their land was more important than they were. It was really a moment for me when I\u00a0figured out that on the one side this being as good as sliced bread, that it had so much benefit for our\u00a0lands, I didn\u2019t realize that those farmers who were in the room who had legitimate concerns were\u00a0saying, \u201cWhat have I been doing for 100 years? What about what my dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather\u00a0have been doing?\u201d<\/p>\n