SB 283 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Generally revise laws relating to wind generation facilities

SB 283 would establish new height and lighting rules for wind energy projects in Montana. It requires all new wind turbine towers built after January 1, 2026, to not exceed 350 feet in height (measured from ground to turbine hub center), and mandates federal aviation-approved aircraft detection lighting systems on towers over 200 feet tall. These rules apply to new wind generation facilities (defined as projects with 25+ megawatt capacity) but do not affect existing towers built before 2026. The bill also provides definitions for key terms like "wind generation facility" and "turbine rotor hub" to clarify the regulations. The proposed changes would directly impact developers and operators planning new wind energy projects in Montana.

Issues: ✓ Energy

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 7, 2025 Last action May 23, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

LC3516.pdf → SB0283_1.pdf · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill number changed from LC 3516 to SB 283, and the sponsor list was added. The substantive policy content regarding wind turbine height limits, lighting requirements, and effective dates appears unchanged, though the document formatting and page headers were updated.

TECHNICAL

Bill number changed from LC 3516 to SB 283, indicating a shift from a committee substitute to the Senate bill version.

List of sponsors (B. Phalen, V. Ricci, B. Ler, J. Schillinger, L. Deming, B. Usher, G. Kmetz, T. Tezak) was added to the bill header.

Page headers and footers were updated to reflect the new bill number and authorized print version status.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Feb 28, 2025

Amended

(S) Tabled in Committee - (S) Energy, Technology & Federal Relations

upper

Feb 10, 2025

Committee

(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Energy, Technology & Federal Relations

upper

Feb 7, 2025

Introduced

(S) Introduced

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors