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PNS - Tuesday, October 11, 2022 - Maryland will begin pre-processing of mail-in ballots, New England is preparing for low temperatures and high energy costs, and a new report shows fossil fuels still undergird utilities' future plans.
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PNS - Tuesday, October 11, 2022 - World leaders condemn Russia's brutal assault on civilian infrastructure, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland wishes Americans a happy Indigenous People's Day, and New York fights to uphold its landmark gun laws.
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Oct 10, 2022
Your electricity bill is going up 12.6 percent this month, or $11.19, if you’re an average residential customer with NorthWestern Energy.
That’s $134.28 a year, but it’s less than the $170.16 a year the monopoly requested in its interim rate increase. That would have been nearly 16 percent more.
Last week, the Montana Public Service Commission voted to approve that bump. As part of lengthy commentary at the meeting, one commissioner also suggested one city in particular — Missoula — should get hit with “brownouts,” or temporary reductions in power, if NorthWestern must implement them.
At the meeting, the PSC also approved another $0.48 in the average natural gas bill, or 0.7 percent. In the case of natural gas, NorthWestern had asked for the equivalent of $1.60 more on average a month for residential customers.
The higher rates aren’t permanent just yet, and Friday, PSC staff attorney Lucas Hamilton said a public hearing will likely take place in April 2023 in advance of a vote on any final increase — or vote on a refund if the commission decides NorthWestern overcharged customers.
Hamilton also said he had not seen any material from the energy utility that indicated it was contemplating brownouts, although he also had not reviewed every single page of recent submissions. (A NorthWestern spokesperson was out of the office Friday, and a voicemail left for a substitute was not immediately returned.)
The Montana Consumer Counsel did not weigh in on the temporary rate increase, but Hamilton noted the agency that advocates for customers is heavily involved in NorthWestern’s request for a permanent hike.
At the meeting where commissioners approved the increase, they defended it as necessary for the financial health of NorthWestern Energy. Commissioner Brad Johnson, for instance, said the utility was only going to get what it was rightly entitled to recover in the short term.
“I hated to have to make the motion to increase rates,” Johnson said. “None of us on this commission or on this staff or with the utility want to see these prices go up. But we are confronted by a thing called reality that we simply have to deal with here.”
A PSC staff report noted NorthWestern experienced a decline in its earnings in the first half of 2022. It said over the last five years, the company’s return on electricity has been less than the PSC has authorized.
“NorthWestern’s earnings levels support the need for an interim increase,” said the report.
However, the staff report recommended less of an increase than the utility wanted in the short term. The regulatory body is charged with ensuring customers pay a fair rate and utilities earn fair returns.
Commissioner Randy Pinocci said constituents have been grilling him about rates given other costs such as property taxes and inflation, and he needs to have good answers for them.
He also said if NorthWestern Energy implements brownouts, ratepayers have asked him how the company decides which cities experience them.
Pinocci said testimony from Missoulians indicated they didn’t mind if their power was shut off now and then, “so maybe Missoula is the one to turn off.” He figured they wouldn’t like it in winter, though.
“I think in the event that happens in 20 below, then they will have a very different attitude,” Pinocci said.
In a story from Lee Enterprises, Winona Bateman with Families for Livable Climate said she hadn’t heard Missoulians asking for brownouts. The Families for Livable Climate group has been critical of NorthWestern’s plan to continue coal operations and its desire to build methane plants.
“I would love to know the source of who’s signing up Missoula for brownouts because I think that seems like an odd comment,” Bateman said. “No one to my knowledge has said that.”
Pinocci also said Montanans are facing not only higher power bills, but inflation, and he’s getting tough questions. All the commissioners are Republicans, but he said because Republicans in the state control the Montana Legislature and are in the governor’s seat, the GOP must act on property tax reductions as it has promised.
“I’m gonna put them on the spot and say you’ve got to get a handle on some reasonable property taxes,” he said.
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Big Sky Connection - A judge has struck down election laws that would have created barriers to voting for Native Americans and students in Montana. The decision comes in the final weeks before the midterm elections. Comments from Jacqueline De Leon, staff attorney, Native American Rights Fund.
Click on the image above for the audio. With voting booths often located far from home, absentee ballots are a way many Native Americans in Montana vote. (The Toidi/Adobe Stock)
Eric Tegethoff
October 10, 2-22
A Montana District Court has struck down three election laws which would have created voting barriers weeks before the midterm election.
Two of the laws presented especially high hurdles to Native Americans in the state, including a law to eliminate Election-Day voter registration and another banning third-party ballot collection.
Jacqueline De Leon, staff attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, which represented plaintiffs in this case, said Judge Michael Moses found evidence the Legislature intentionally discriminated against people who rely on Election-Day registration, such as Indigenous communities and students.
"It's pretty disturbing that the Legislature went ahead and passed these laws despite the known impacts on Native Americans," De Leon asserted.
The lawsuit was brought by Western Native Voice and tribes in Montana, including the Blackfeet Nation and Northern Cheyenne Tribe. The third law struck down in the decision would have made it harder for students to register to vote by requiring them to use another form of identification in addition to their student ID.
De Leon said a court struck down a nearly identical ballot collection law in 2020 in Montana, noting many tribes do not have reliable residential mail delivery.
"They've really come to rely on organizations that go out in vehicles that can access the poor roads and can pay for gas and can travel significant distances to circumvent poor mail service to pick up ballots for Native Americans," De Leon explained.
De Leon added it is important to note the laws are discriminatory and conversely, Native Americans are not asking for extra accommodations.
"They're not asking for more than what other Montanans are entitled to," De Leon contended. "What they're asking for is for equal access and in the face of it being unequal, they're asking that the tools that they use to overcome those inequalities not be targeted and taken away."
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