Montana PSC head vows to kill power line project
LAUREL, MONTANA - A southern Montana member of the state Public Service Commission is vowing to kill a proposed NorthWestern Energy transmission line into Idaho, saying it will be used to drain power from Montana for use in other states.
Brad Molnar, a Republican from Laurel, says Montana customers will wind up buying power on the open market from states where it's more expensive to produce, such as California.
NorthWestern officials have said the $1 billion, 430-mile power line, which is still a half decade away from completion, at the earliest, is intended to ship power from new, renewable-energy projects, including wind farms.
This is just the latest setback for NorthWestern, which federal regulators have already slowed on concerns over how the company structured the deal and after a utility, PPL Montana, complained the project aims to gain a monopoly influence over transmission in the state.
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WASHINGTON - The US electricity sector is in a period of unprecedented change and turmoil. Renewable energy prices are falling like crazy. Natural gas production continues its extraordinary surge. Coal, the golden child of the current administration, is headed down the tubes.
In all that bedlam, it’s easy to lose sight of an equally important (if less sexy) trend: Demand for electricity is stagnant.
Thanks to a combination of greater energy efficiency, outsourcing of heavy industry, and customers generating their own power on site, demand for utility power has been flat for 10 years, and most forecasts expect it to stay that…
