Property Rights Take Center Stage as Montana Grapples With Wind Development

Inside Climate News · By Karin Kirk · last updated May 14, 2025 – 1:07 AM

Some bills to restrict the size and spacing of wind towers failed in the Montana Legislature, but local zoning is a new battlefield as debates over the renewable energy source heat up.

By Karin Kirk

Colstrip, in Rosebud County, Montana, sitting next door to the strip mines that feed it, remains the second-largest coal power plant in the American West, even after part of it was retired in 2019. But not long after that, Rosebud County also became the home of the biggest wind energy project in Montana.

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