Montana News
National parks bring billion dollar boost; PSC climate petition; Polls show Sheehy leading Senate race
With Montana News, I'm Eleanor Smith. Visitors to National Parks in Montana last year contributed more than a billion dollars to the state's economy according to the National Park Service. Montana Public Radio's John Hooks has more. More than five and a half million people came to Montana to visit National Parks in 2023. The National Park Service last month released its annual report on visitor spending. The report found park visitors contributed over a billion dollars to the state economy and supported nearly 11,000 jobs. The vast majority of that spending, over 90%, came from out of staters who visited Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. That economic output is double what Montana brought in a decade ago. Both Glacier and Yellowstone have seen higher visitor numbers in 2024 than last year. In Butte, I'm John Hooks. A district court judge will not require state utility regulators to respond to a petition asking them to consider climate change. A coalition of businesses, climate organizations and environmental groups filed the petition with the Public Service Commission earlier this year. The groups say the Public Service Commission violated state law by not responding to the request within 60 days and asked a judge to intervene. The Public Service Commission says it began an informal rulemaking process by taking public comment and did not need to respond in that timeframe. Today, Missoula District Court Judge Leslie Halligan ruled in support of the Public Service Commission, finding that the agency has discretion to decide when to respond. Political analysts have updated their rankings of Montana's U.S. Senate race from a toss-up to Lean's Republican. The Republican in the race, Tim Sheehy, has gained ground in recent polls over Democratic incumbent U.S. Senator John Tester. The race also features libertarian Sid Dowd and Green Party candidate Robert Barb. The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter in the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia both changed their projections to show Sheehy with a competitive edge. Tester has outraised Sheehy three to one so far. Tens of millions of dollars from outside interest groups have poured in for both candidates. Republicans have swept recent statewide elections, now holding more power than one party has had in nearly a century. This is MTPR.