This arrangement, announced Friday by Montana Power Co. and the primary electric supplier, PPL EnergyPlus, is not yet a sure thing. The Public Service Commission must review it, and has some power to make adjustments or even reject it. But through its actions last week, the Legislature gave tacit approval to this deal. The Legislature also essentially left industrial consumers to fend for themselves in the deregulated electricity market, with prices at unprecedented heights. That leaves hundreds of Montanans without jobs because of plant shutdowns, brought on by these unaffordable prices.
Trouble is, there was an alternative.
The Legislature and Gov. Judy Martz simply rejected it, suggesting it was too risky. The alternative was in House Bill 632, sponsored by Rep. Doug Mood, R-Seeley Lake. HB632 bolstered the legal assertion that even though Montana Power sold its power plants in 1999 to PPL Montana, the state Public Service Commission still retained authority to regulate the price of power sold by those plants to MPC customers. In short, HB632 directed the PSC to assert that authority, now, and regulate electricity prices until a real competitive market develops in Montana. It would have offered immediate relief to industrial customers facing astronomical electricity prices and the prospect of a cost-based rate for MPC consumers next year.