On Friday, Lind introduced a bill enabling the state to do just that - but it’s not a plan for the state to engineer a hostile takeover of NorthWestern.
Instead, Senate Bill 558 sets up a state-run Montana Electric and Gas Authority that could negotiate to buy NorthWestern Energy and convert it to a publicly owned, nonprofit utility, Lind said.
Right now, NorthWestern is trying to sell the company to Babcock and Brown Infrastructure (BBI), an Australian-owned firm, for $2.2 billion.
The Montana Public Service Commission this week held a three-day hearing on the sale, during which critics of the deal said BBI ownership could create great risks and few benefits for utility customers.
The commission will probably decide this spring whether to approve the deal.
Claudia Rapkoch, spokeswoman for NorthWestern, said Friday the company is aware of Lind’s bill but hasn’t had time to evaluate it.
“It’s not a subject that we’ve spent much time looking into,” she said. “We hope it won’t be necessary, anyway. We’re hoping for the conclusion we’ve been working so hard to achieve.”
Last year NorthWestern rejected a purchase bid from five Montana cities, which wanted to convert the utility into a nonprofit operation.
A leader of that bid, former Missoula Mayor Mike Kadas, said Friday he’s been working with Lind on SB558.
Kadas said he thinks there’s a strong chance the PSC will reject the bid from BBI to purchase NorthWestern.
“I really think that for Montana’s best interest, we need to look at (the state) purchasing the utility,” he said. “It’s such a fundamental piece of our economic and social stability.”
SB558 addresses some of the concerns people had with the cities taking over NorthWestern, allowing the Legislature to approve the structure of the nonprofit corporation that could buy the utility, he and Lind said.
The new electric-and-gas authority could sell bonds to finance the purchase and repay them with revenue from ratepayers. The governor would appoint five board members to oversee the authority.
The bill likely will have its first hearing next Friday in the Senate Natural Resources Committee, which is chaired by Lind.
While SB558 will face stiff opposition from NorthWestern, Kadas said he thinks the idea of public ownership has strong support from the public.
“I have at least a naive hope that the legislators can rise above the pressure that gets put on them by NorthWestern and move forward,” he said. “Montanans are tired of having this key piece of infrastructure batted around and are ready to do something about it. What we’ve done is create a vehicle for that to happen.”
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