A left-leaning think tank Wednesday proposed the state create a new energy-conservation office, which it said could produce "hundreds of millions of dollars" in economic benefits to Montana.

"Enormous economic gains can be obtained through conservation, and many of those gains are distributed widely among all citizens," said Bob Decker, executive director of the Helena-based Policy Institute.

The Institute said the new Office of Energy Conservation would employ four-to-six people and have an annual budget of $500,000 to $750,000. It would be funded by reinstating oil-and-gas taxes that were cut in 1999, the Institute said.

Decker said a state conservation office would help put into place recommendations from Gov. Brian Schweitzer's Climate Change Advisory Committee -- as well as complement the Schweitzer administration's current energy policy, which mostly emphasizes energy development.

Conservation and other proposals from the climate-change group have a $750 million economic benefit for Montana over the next dozen years, Decker said.

"The challenge of energy management in Montana isn't going to sit on the shelf, and neither should the Climate Change report," he said.

Sarah Elliott, a spokeswoman for Gov. Schweitzer, said the administration supports energy conservation, and had proposed creating an energy-policy office in the Department of Environmental Quality last year.

The proposal ended up as the Energy Infrastructure Promotion and Development Division in the Department of Commerce, focusing on energy development.

The Schweitzer administration is working on its next budget proposals, which will be completed this fall. Elliott said the administration may look at the Policy Institute's request, but that the final decision would be up to the next Legislature.

The Institute noted that Schweitzer proposed last November that the state "lead by example" on conservation and reduce its own energy consumption by 20 percent over the next three years.

But the state likely can't reach that goal without "a sharp focus, a tangible commitment and adequate staff and material support," the Institute said.

"The governor and Legislature can follow up one good investment with one that's even better -- a new state initiative to put the climate change report to work and pursue the economic rewards of energy conservation," Decker said.

The Institute describes itself as a think tank that pushes public policy "based on economic justice, fair taxation, corporate accountability and environmental responsibility."