Sign up for the free Great Falls This Week newsletter and stay in the loop on Great Falls city government, public school meetings, business news and upcoming entertainment and events. Sign up 8/07/2026 Good Monday morning. This is Matt, your local reporter for Montana Free Press. This week, I have an update from Montana Renewables on its ongoing expansion. A change in plans affects both the ground and the air around the refinery. Plus, a statue was dressed up like Woody the cartoon character. But first… heads up, Great Falls Most government offices are closed today in recognition of Labor Day. But trash pickup in Great Falls is operating as normal, according to the city. If you didn’t put your bins out, now is the time to hustle. Biorefinery expects to produce less, spend much less Montana Renewables has reduced the scope — and the expense — of its biorefinery expansion that the company says will be more efficient and cost-effective. Originally approved for a $1.4 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy, Montana Renewables now says it will draw just $816 million for its expansion. In a press release Sept. 1, the company said that it had decided to transfer several assets from the Calumet Montana petroleum refinery to Montana Renewables. The two operate on the same site. The plant expects to retain all employees despite this revision, according to the press release. This “redeployment” of assets allows the company to reach a robust production goal at a lower cost, the release said “We’ve worked hard to unleash the ingenuity of our engineering and operational teams, and they developed a project that captures approximately 70% of the originally expected benefit while spending only 15% of the originally expected Phase 2 capital,” said Todd Borgmann, Calumet CEO, in the press release. “Phase 2” refers to the remaining expansion project and the second tranche of loan capital approved by the federal government. Instead of taking the full $658 million in phase 2 loan funds, Montana Renewables plans to take $34 million. The company has already received $782 million from the first tranche of the loan guarantee. Montana Renewables originally planned to reach a production goal of 300 million gallons annually of its hallmark product: sustainable aviation fuel. That goal has been revised to 200 million gallons annually through this new plan. More than two years ago, I explored the purported environmental benefits of Montana Renewables’ products alongside the air emissions that could be expected here in Great Falls. The initial data showed that the proposed biorefinery project could emit more pollution locally than the plant did as an oil refinery. In August, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality released a draft environmental assessment for the revised Montana Renewables expansion. The revised projections showed reductions in all pollutants regulators track — reductions that bring many of the Montana Renewables pollutants below the Calumet refinery’s emissions when it operated at full strength. But like any refinery, the Great Falls site will remain a major contributor to pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions for our region. Photo Op 📸 Credit: Matt Hudson / MTFP This photo is from earlier this summer, and the statue of Coach Brady has been restored to its original state. But did you catch the Woody makeover? And who did it? It’s the mystery of our time. Eye on Local Government 🏛️ An investigation continues into 810 “potentially fraudulent” signatures gathered by the congressional campaigns of independent candidates Seth Bodnar and Michael Eisenhauer, a former Great Falls cardiologist. Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki said in a press release last week that the investigation is in its early stages and that he wanted to maintain the integrity of his office’s inquiry. “Public confidence in the election process depends on transparency, but it also depends on a careful investigation that is not compromised by premature disclosure,” Racki said in a press release Sept. 2. “We understand why the public wants more information. We have released the facts we can confirm without jeopardizing evidence or alerting potential suspects, and we will continue providing updates as the investigation allows.” He said the investigation concerns signature-gathering by each campaign and that neither campaign was suspected of wrongdoing. Campaigns often contract with people or organizations to gather signatures. None of the 810 signatures that are under suspicion were used to certify the campaigns for the general election. County election staff excluded those signatures before making their final counts, the release said. Great Falls in Brief ⏱️ Following last week’s report of an area mosquito infected with West Nile virus, the City-County Health Department said Sept. 1 that a rabies-infected bat had been found in Cascade County. Officials warned residents to avoid handling bats and protect homes and animals from contact. NorthWestern Energy announced a $10,000 gift to Toby’s House Crisis Nursery, which provides free, drop-in child care for parents. Toby’s House is nearing completion of a new building on the south end of downtown. Read more about Toby’s House here. The city of Great Falls announced that Kelly Johanneck will be the next director of the city-county Emergency Communication Center. Johanneck has been with the center since 2004 and succeeds Karen Young, who recently retired after a 38-year career. Read more about Johanneck here. From the MTFP Newsroom 📰 I broke the news last week that Dr. Greg Tierney, a senior administrator at Benefis Health System, no longer works for the hospital. The circumstances of his departure aren’t publicly known, and Benefis hasn’t responded to multiple inquiries I’ve made since June. That’s when we published an investigative story about a specialty heart program called TAVR that was the subject of internal disputes at Benefis. The program has been paused. We were able to interview Tierney prior to that June story. He expressed full confidence in how the TAVR program was run, dismissed concerns raised by other doctors and hoped TAVR would come back online sometime this year. The hospital invested heavily in the program, including a traveling cardiologist, Dr. Kimberly Atianzar, who earned significantly more than her full-time colleagues while managing the TAVR program. The post Montana Renewables revises expansion plans appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less