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With federal money available, Montana aims to make schools more energy efficient

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Later this summer, states will find out if they'll get millions of dollars to reduce planet-warming pollution. The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act the Democrats and President Biden pushed through Congress two years ago. Earlier this year, states submitted plans for how to lower emissions, but every state has a different idea of what that looks like. In one conservative state, the plan is largely about schools. Here's Ellis Juhlin with Montana Public Radio.

ELLIS JUHLIN, BYLINE: The high school in Big Sandy, Mont., was built in the 1930s and is in desperate need of upgrades to make it energy efficient, including a new boiler.

DAN SCHROCK: It's so bad that we actually have to turn our heat off to try to regulate the heat as opposed to simply turning the thermostats down.

JUHLIN: This is superintendent Dan Schrock.

SCHROCK: You can only do more with less for so long before you're actually doing less with less, and then you're compounding the actual cost of that deferred maintenance down the road.

JUHLIN: Big Sandy isn't alone. Many districts can't pay for major updates without help. But a coalition of environmental groups and retired teachers see the need for updating schools as an opportunity to help the state reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

WINONA RACHEL: At some point, we're going to have to deal with it.

JUHLIN: Winona Rachel is with Families for a Livable Climate. The group helped draft a part of the plan for how Montana can address human-driven climate change.

RACHEL: And so why not also address that and make our schools at the forefront of kind of the climate readiness and be saving them a lot of money?

JUHLIN: In conservative states like Montana, climate change isn't always up for discussion, but everyone can agree on keeping kids comfortable in the classroom. So that's why the state has focused a large portion of its climate action on schools. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte required the state to request federal funding exclusively for optional projects, not new regulations.

GREG GIANFORTE: There are some very practical, pragmatic programs that are really needed in our communities, and I think particularly enhancing energy efficiency of our schools is a good one to work on.

JUHLIN: Earlier this year, Montana and 45 other states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, submitted plans requesting millions of federal dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The plans request funding for everything from electric vehicles to reducing emissions in agriculture. Montana is asking for almost $100 million. A quarter of that would go towards making schools more energy efficient. The rest could go towards projects, including addressing wildfire severity and doing energy audits for commercial buildings.

Wendy Jaglom-Kurtz is with the Rocky Mountain Institute, a clean energy nonprofit. She says all of these plans represent a collective national effort to reduce emissions.

WENDY JAGLOM-KURTZ: It's getting all of these states across the country - many, many more states than have in the past - to put together and submit, in a consistent place and a consistent way, their thinking and their approach to climate action and energy transition in their states.

JUHLIN: But it's entirely up to each state to pick industries they want to target for emissions reductions. Montana modeled its school upgrades on previous state-funded projects, like in the town of Big Timber, where the high school has been improving its energy efficiency for several years.

SAM SPECTOR: There's not a stoplight in the entire county.

JUHLIN: This is Sam Spector. He manages facilities for Sweet Grass County High School, the largest building in Big Timber. He started doing upgrades at the school almost a decade ago.

SPECTOR: Here's our solar panels. They're next to the interstate.

JUHLIN: Spector says the solar array covers a fourth of the school's electricity use. He's also retrofitted lights in the gym and improved the heating and ventilation systems.

SPECTOR: All the energy efficiency upgrades - based on the prices and where we were, we're saving $48,000 a year. So that's an extra teacher.

JUHLIN: Sweet Grass County is conservative. Republicans won two-thirds of the vote in all elections in 2022. Spector knows talking about climate change is a hard sell, but everyone is on board with saving money.

SPECTOR: Community response has been tremendously positive. From that solar, other people in the county have become interested and have done solar.

JUHLIN: The EPA will decide what funding states get sometime this summer. Some states are focused on polluting industries, like Louisiana, which has a plan that could reduce emissions by 30% over five years. If Montana receives the millions it hopes for, it would reduce emissions by less than 2% over 25 years.

For NPR News, I'm Ellis Juhlin in Missoula. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Ellis Juhlin