"It may be what Benjamin Franklin had in mind when he said the Founders gave the American people a republic, but only so long as we can muster the courage, integrity, and fiscal rectitude to keep it."
"Montana has every reason to be bullish on AI, but without leaders doing more to champion these innovations, we may have our incoming productivity boom prematurely thwarted."
"The implication of crypto is that Americans will end up saving a tremendous amount of money on the cost of every economic transaction they do – whether it's a lower interest rate you have to pay when you take out a loan, or a lower fee associated with buying that cup of coffee."
"More active forest management is great news for those who love Montana’s “clean and healthful” environment and want to improve the global climate."
"If this really is a climate emergency, like some suggest, then we should be doing everything in our power to streamline our permitting process, NOT implementing more red tape on projects that will ultimately benefit the climate."
"If the petitioners would like the PSC to implement a carbon tax on Montana utility customers through ratemaking, they should pursue future legislation which would direct the PSC to do so, rather than attempting to run it through the back door via administrative rulemaking."
In the prior Montana 2050 Report, I discussed how the increasing importance of data in the economy of the future has presented Montana with the opportunity to attract the data center industry to the state and position itself as the Last Best Place to compute. Continuing with the goal to assess the current and future technological...
"In 25 years, Montana energy companies could be installing wind turbines and solar panels built in Montana, with semiconductors and photonic technology manufactured in Montana, utilizing Rare Earth Elements extracted and processed in Montana, to export clean Montana-made energy to power the nation."
In his 2016 book, The End of Average, Todd Rose recounts a story from the 1950’s when the U.S. Air Force faced a major challenge. Pilots were struggling to control their planes leading to serious accidents and fatalities. Initial suspicions were that the jets were too advanced or that pilot training was insufficient, but the...
"We flourish to the extent we are each free to build on our uniqueness, to make our own choices, so long as we do no harm to the equal rights of others."
Key Points: Since 2012, the court’s opinions generally have become clearer and the rate of discarding its own case precedents has decreased. However, the court still uses unclear opinions, and the justices frequently disregard their own rules. This is particularly noticeable in how the justices waive standing requirements for favored plaintiffs, how they review...
"Simply following the rules should not absolve the system of its accountability for properly and fully educating students, and currently that is what we have: an upside-down reality of compliance to rules rather than performance outcomes for students."
"Despite the critical role copper plays in environmental progress and a proposal for the most responsible copper mine in Montana history, a small number of radical groups were able to hijack our permitting process and block Black Butte for years."