By Larry Bean
Imagine a world where the law forces customers to buy from a single corporation. Imagine that same law guarantees profits for using expensive, outdated, and risky business practices. Worse yet, imagine this corporation chooses to emit dangerous toxic pollutants while hiding from public scrutiny. You need not imagine this scenario. It’s how NorthWestern Energy conducts business in Montana, and we customers deserve better.
The monopoly corporation is building an expensive, polluting methane-fired power plant along the Yellowstone River in Laurel and has managed to evade any meaningful public input thus far. That is until April6, when District Judge Michael Moses ordered the construction of the plant be halted. Why? The health and environmental impacts that will surely come if this facility is allowed to operate were not properly considered. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality issued a permit based only on the inadequate data provided by NorthWestern.
Laurel residents (and Billings residents downwind) will experience carcinogenic air pollution. State agencies tasked to protect our health and air quality have documented that the plant will emit toxic Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) including formaldehyde, propylene, and benzene.
Folks living within a few miles of the plant will contend with loud engine noise and overbearing industrial lighting all hours of the day and night, with this massive plant dominating what used to be an agricultural area. In fact, the plant’s site is still zoned for agricultural use, but that hasn’t stopped NorthWestern from continuing industrial construction without proper zoning permits.
Not only does the corporation want to keep us in the dark about the environmental impact its plant will have on the Yellowstone Valley, NorthWestern does not want us to know the full amount it will take out of the ratepayers’ pockets.
NorthWestern already raised our rates last year, and it’s trying to get even more increases approved right now. Bad business decisions like this expensive plant are part of the reasoning for rate increases.
Thus far, NorthWestern has barreled forward without meaningful public hearings or comment periods. What is the corporation hiding? And why is it building such an expensive, polluting plant when other responsible energy companies in our region are investing in reliable energy sources that are cleaner, safer, and more affordable? It’s because of a rigged system that the monopoly corporation is abusing.
The technical term is “Return on Equity” or ROE. The state guarantees NorthWestern an 11 percent profit for building, operating, and maintaining power plants, creating incentives contrary to the interest of its captive customers.
Just think, the cost of the plant (estimated at a third of a billion dollars), maintenance and operation of very complicated internal combustion engines, and an increasingly expensive fuel for which this plant will compete and help to make prices even higher, all paid for by you and me, plus a guaranteed 11 percent profit.
NorthWestern has brazenly abused its monopoly position, and this expensive methane-fired plant that will pollute the entire Yellowstone River valley is just the latest chapter.
Because NorthWestern hasn’t given the community or any of its customers an opportunity to provide input, it’s important for us to be proactive in letting the utility hear directly from us. You can add your name to this letter to NorthWestern Energy executives and its board of directors, demanding the corporation give residents and customers a say in decisions about this plant.
Larry Bean is a Billings-based photographer, retired landscape architect, and a member of
Northern Plains Resource Council, a conservation and family agriculture organization.