Web site promotes training for green energy jobs

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

BUTTE - Montana workers and students interested in careers in green energy now have a one-stop shop on the Web where they can learn about industry opportunities in the state and find online classes to prepare for high-paying jobs.

The new Montana Green Campus was unveiled Friday by the state Board of Regents and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, meeting at Montana Tech.

The project marries two of the governor’s pet projects n developing clean energy industries in Montana, and offering Montana residents more online education.

The new Web site (http://mtgreen.mus.edu/) means a worker in rural Montana who can’t afford to leave his family to go to college can go online to learn about green energy job opportunities in Montana and sign up for Internet classes to retrain for those jobs, Schweitzer said.

“I can’t expect somebody from Lewistown to move to Bozeman or Missoula” so they can change careers and work on wind turbines, the governor said.

The new Web site has a map showing where 38 green energy projects are already under way around the state, including wind farms and biofuel projects.

People can click on each location to learn about the kinds of jobs available at each site, and the type of training needed for each job. Then they can click to find out how to get the appropriate degrees or job training, either from online classes or at Montana campuses.

The Web site also includes information about “fantastic” university research, like fuel cells, hybrid energy, carbon sequestration and green construction, said Tyler Trevor, associate commissioner of higher education for technology.

Regents Chairman Stephen Barrett called it “immensely exciting” and quoted from author Thomas Friedman on the need for a new energy-climate era to replace the petroleum era.

“The Stone Age didn’t end because they ran out of stones,” Barrett said. “If all you ever do is all you’ve ever done, then all you’re ever gonna get is all you’ve ever got.”

If America embraces clean energy, Schweitzer said, there could be $500 billion worth of “in-sourcing” investments in American jobs, instead of $500 billion in outsourcing to foreign petroleum nations.

Schweitzer, asked later if critics might think the Web site featuring his photo and voice was a campaign gimmick, said they wouldn’t if they’d heard him telling the regents the last several years that the University System needs to be “more relevant, accessible, affordable and transferable.”

“The jobs we are creating are new jobs, non-traditional jobs, like wind-turbine and biodiesel plant” jobs, Schweitzer said. “Jobs that did not exist a few years ago.”

The governor said that Montana State University in Bozeman has the worst list of online class offerings, while MSU-Billings has the best with about 100 classes.

Trevor said other universities in the West have Web sites to centralize information about their online classes, but he thinks combining that with energy development is unique to Montana and “cutting edge.”

He gave credit to two MSU staff members, Jacob Dolan and Ron Lambert, for putting the new Web site together in record time.

Gail Schontzler is at gails@dailychronicle.com or 582-2633.

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