Los Angeles Attorney Falls in Love with Big Sky Country and now Wind Power Generates Revenue on Montana’s School Trust Lands

Lester Brown, a Los Angeles-based attorney and the principal for Madison Valley Renewable Energy http://madisonvalleyrenewableenergy.com/principals.html , said Wednesday that he and his family attended the Ennis Fourth of July parade and rodeo in 2006 while visiting friends in Big Sky.

“We just completely fell in love with it,” he said of the region.

Companies vie to harness Norris Hill wind potential

If the winds blow the right way, three developers might soon create electrical generation facilities in the Norris Hill area to harness its powers.

One of those developers, Madison Valley Renewable Energy LLC, was recently chosen by Montana to use state school trust lands in Madison County for a wind power project, in exchange for a percentage of its gross revenues, said Mike Sullivan, a property management section supervisor with the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

School trust lands, of which there are about 5 million acres in surface lands and more than 6 million in subsurface acres in Montana, are leased in a variety of ways to raise money for public schools. Sullivan oversees commercial leases of the trust lands, which is the smallest yet highest revenue-generating section, he said Wednesday. Other sections provide leases to farmers, ranchers, mineral prospectors and timber harvesters.

By JODI HAUSEN Chronicle Staff Writer

Full Story: http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2008/01/10/news/20wind.txt