MONTANA HEADLINE NEWS, 09/17
Governor Greg Gianforte and the Montana DNRC announced Monday a record-setting oil and gas lease sale on four tracts of state trust land in Pondera, Richland, and Toole counties. The lease will bring in $2.85 million, which ranks as the highest average bid price per acre and on a single tract in the history of oil and gas lease sales on state trust lands.
The Biden-Harris administration has unveiled a new rule that would force 18-wheelers and buses to go electric starting in 2027. That news doesn’t sit well with Tanner Lambert owner of Cross X Trucking in Harrison. Like many Montana truckers, Lambert’s job often requires driving long distances for multiple days at a time and through inclement weather. He told Senator Steve Daines that the mandate is a bad idea for his industry. Daines says he is pushing back against the Biden-Harris administration’s “crazy rule.”
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen unveiled a new initiative Monday aimed at addressing the state’s growing fentanyl crisis. The program will provide life-saving naloxone kits to middle and high schools across Montana equipping them with essential tools to handle opioid overdoses. AG Knudsen has also expanded resources by adding a statewide drug intelligence officer and facilitating a grant program to deploy drug-detecting K9s throughout the state.
Governor Greg Gianforte has issued two executive orders declaring disasters related to severe weather events in Miles City Hamilton and Stevensville. Montana will use money from the general fund to meet contingencies and needs and help impacted communities get back on their feet as quickly as possible.
According to public fundraising numbers the three statewide constitutional initiatives Montanans will consider on November’s ballot are largely being bankrolled by two out-of-state organizations. The money is coming from national political organizations that do not have to disclose their donors and spending.
Effective immediately the Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park is now open to fly fishing from sunrise to sunset. The park has lifted the partial fishing closure on this river and its associated tributaries due to cooler temperatures.
