ST. REGIS - When the Idaho Forest Group closed operations in St. Regis in 2021, many were worried about what the lack of those jobs would do to the community.
Watch to learn more about St. Regis becoming part of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub:
Now, in 2025, renewable energy may offer new jobs in St. Regis.
"We really feel this is our future," St. Regis Solar Hydrogen CEO George Bailey told MTN.
The hydrogen highway of the future will soon run through St. Regis, as the small town was selected to be part of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub, a $1 billion project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Washington, Oregon, and now Montana are working to produce zero-carbon hydrogen fuel.
"We're going to produce a certain amount of solar to make hydrogen," Bailey said.
Through a process called electrolysis, solar energy turns water into hydrogen without carbon emissions. Hydrogen can power anything from semi-trucks to tractors.
"They use hydrogen to make diesel. The trucking company can use the same engines, they can use the same fueling system, so it's really cost-effective," Bailey detailed.
Being a busy travel stop on I-90, St. Regis positions itself as the spot to generate and distribute the fuel.
"St. Regis is the entry point to Montana for so many trucking companies and cars, too. They come here and they head north to Glacier Park, or they head to Missoula. The trucking companies, a lot of times come out of Spokane delivering products and St. Regis would be the hydrogen refueling stop for them," State Senator Denley Loge (R-St. Regis) shared.
Next to the community center, interested individuals can attend training classes and join the energy industry, bringing jobs back to Mineral County.
"We have a lot of really good service jobs, but when we lost our mill, our jobs paying in the 50,000 and 60,000 range left, but we're going to replace them and maybe even be able to pay a little higher wage," Bailey said.
Initial jobs for the project include installing the solar array on the roofs of nearby storage spaces over the course of the next year.
