Re-reg
The legislature has passed "re-regulation." This will give the City of Great Falls until October 1 to resell the remaining 40 megawatts of power it will be entitled to purchase from the Highwood Generating Station. Right now the City uses or sells about 25 MW of power.
Someone remind me why this was such a great idea again. Let's see, a whole bunch of other residents of the State of Montana can purchase their power from the plant. We can't. We're looking to spend about $180,000,000.00 for the right to purchase roughly 3 times our present needs. We've already sold a significant chunk of our water rights. We've spent millions already just looking into this whole thing. And it seems the structure and operation of a power plant has become a full-time job for our City Manager and Fiscal Services Director (don't they already have jobs?).
Oh yeah. We get the smoke and smokestacks.
Leadership.
Speaking of leadership, when Gov. Schweitzer was asked to comment on the re-regulation bill, he said, "I think I'll wear my blue suit and blue bolo tie. Can my dog come on the show?"
5 comments:
this is a test
Of the emergency broadcast system?
Visit your site everyday. Marvel at your communication ability and clear thinking on this and other issues. Am a proponet of open government and placing of trust in the well informed voter. Unfortionately the ability of the public to become "well informed" is corrupted in this City. Please continue with your efforts in our behalf. Signed, "a fan" Hope we have the opportunity to meet and visit someday soon.
Now the city is hiring a Seattle firm to do the marketing--the icing on the cake--can't we spend our money on Great Falls businesses?
Is no one concerned that this re-regulation bill will force Montana citizens to purchase power plants for an Australian corporation. NorthWestern operates on a cost plus basis so the more inefficient they are the more money they make. Are we sure this is the best system for creating public power? At the end of the day (or 30 years from now) we the citizens of Montana will still own nothing yet we bear all the risk for building any new generating facilities owned by NorthWestern Energy.
Also of concern is that our governor is in California fundraising from the stars with the excuse that he needs the money because he does not accept contributions from PAC’s. So why is it better that he takes money from out of state interests and not from the likes of the Montana Innkeepers Association, Great Falls Chamber of Commerce or the Montana Education Association all of which are part of that dirty pack money. Thank God for the clean money available from Brian’s Californian constituents.
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