Regional Overview

The Big Sky region enjoys some of the lowest cost electricity in the country, produced largely through hydropower and regionally mined coal. Continued access to affordable power is critical to the region’s ability to attract new businesses and jobs. Because coal is abundant in the region and because other large-scale power generation options, such as hydroelectric, have reached near maximum capacity, coal and gasified or liquefied products of coal will play an increasingly important role in supplying electricity to regional markets. However, given the uncertain regulatory environment regarding carbon dioxide, managers must consider planning a future energy base that supports a carbon-constrained economy. The ability to site future fossil fuel based power plants and industrial facilities could require carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions mitigation through CO2 capture and subsurface storage or through using carbon offsets and terrestrial carbon sequestration. Access to carbon dioxide buyers and geologic storage sites will likely become critical to the economic viability of future industrial sites.

The regional characterization of the potential sinks conducted under the early efforts of the BSCSP confirmed the premise that the region has a “wealth” of potential sinks for CO2. East of the Rockies exists large saline aquifers capable of sequestering several gigatons of CO2, while the western part of the region has basalt formations which also have the potential to sequester hundreds of years of regional CO2 emissions. In addition, the BSCSP land area includes vast acreage of agricultural, range and forest lands that can be managed for greater storage of soil carbon and carbon in the biomass.