Electric cooperatives need sound land management policies and continued federal investment in wildfire mitigation to help combat the growing threat of wildfires, a Montana co-op leader told lawmakers Sept. 17 at a Capitol Hill briefing.
Missoula Electric Cooperative General Manager Mark Hayden joined other electric utility leaders to brief the Congressional Western Caucus on the challenge of wildfires.
Hayden, whose Missoula-based co-op serves 14,000 members, said the threat of wildfires is “becoming more and more urgent” as new homes and businesses come to the region. The co-op’s territory is adjacent to forested federal lands, and Missoula County has a higher wildfire risk than 96% of U.S. counties.
But wildfires are not just a Western problem, the utility executives observed.
“I’m here today to represent not just Missoula Electric, but roughly 900 other co-ops situated across the country,” Hayden said.
He called on Congress to extend strict liability caps for utilities for wildfire incidents on federal lands that are set to expire in 2028. Hayden also recommended codifying Trump administration policies to expedite approval of wildfire prevention projects, such as hazard tree removals and undergrounding power lines, so those processes remain in place under future administrations.
He also underscored the value of federal infrastructure investment authorized by the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 for co-op projects to address wildfire risk.
Once those projects are completed, “my cooperative and several others will be better positioned to address fire risk for decades to come,” he said.
The Trump administration and Congress have taken steps this year to make it easier for electric co-ops to harden their systems against wildfires and remove trees and other vegetation that can fuel fires.
President Donald Trump ordered land management agencies to expedite wildfire mitigation permitting and approvals. The House passed the Fix Our Forests Act in January, and the Senate introduced its version of the bill in April, both of which would make the expedited permitting processes law.
Hayden also urged support for the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, which would streamline National Environmental Policy Act requirements for co-op generation, transmission, distribution and system maintenance projects that need federal permits.
Further relief is necessary to support co-ops, he emphasized.
“I was out here in 2015 to talk about permitting reform and vegetation management,” Hayden said. “We’ve made progress, but that progress has been very, very slow over those years.”
Molly Christian is a staff writer for NRECA.