The Eye Popping Numbers Shared by AFP Montana’s Jesse Ramos

We were chatting with US House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR). Then we were chatting with North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND). Both times, AFP-Montana's Jesse Ramos shared some eye popping numbers.

In fact, Ramos was headlining Governor Greg Gianforte's Montana Energy Summit in Bozeman recently where he had shared these numbers. Chairman Westerman was also a keynote speaker at that event.

As Ramos joined us during our Capitol Hill coverage earlier this week, there were a couple of numbers that he mentioned that stood out in particular. It was the numbers he shared about mining and timber in Montana.

Below is an excerpt from his speech at the energy conference in Bozeman, followed by a soundbite straight from our conversation with Chairman Westerman.

What about Montana timber? 

Since 2001, we’ve lost over two million acres of Montana forest to wildfire — far more than we’ve harvested in that same time. That’s roughly 30 billion board-feet of timber, enough to build over 2 million homes, gone

The total economic output of that wood including the mills, truckers, and businesses that depend on it, is easily over $40, billion dollars. That could cover our entire state budget, for 5 years.

What about Montana mining?

It's not just logging in Montana, we've got mines with over 100 billion pounds of copper in them. That's enough to rebuild our energy grid twice, and it's just sitting there. It's 40 years waiting on a permit.

By the way, for full audio of our conversations with Senator Cramer and Chairman Westerman...check out the Montana Talks podcast from Wednesday's 7a and 8a hours.