By Nick Fitzmaurice, Missoula Current
Worried about your escalating energy bills? NorthWestern Energy’s failure to plan for a clean, affordable energy future puts grid reliability at risk and unnecessarily burdens Montana ratepayers.
In October, the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC), the regulatory body overseeing monopoly utilities, approved an enormous 28% rate increase to NorthWestern’s residential electricity customers. And this increase doesn’t even include costly capital investments that NorthWestern Energy has outlined in its most recent 20-year energy plan.
The world of utility regulation may not seem exciting, but what happens at the PSC has critical implications for our climate – and our pocketbooks. It’s essential that Montanans are paying attention and making our voices heard to ensure the PSC does its job.
NorthWestern Energy’s latest energy plan – called an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) – is required by Montana statute at least every three years and outlines a utility’s plans to meet energy demands over the next 20 years. The purpose is to ensure that utilities are prepared for the future and are able to provide reliable, affordable power that is in the public’s best interest. The PSC is required to provide comments on every IRP, and ultimately is responsible for identifying deficiencies for NorthWestern to address in future planning cycles.
