House Bill 25 first stalled on a 25-25 vote and appeared dead. But an hour and a half later, supporters of the bill had persuaded three senators to change their vote, and the measure won endorsement 28-22.
If the measure survives a final vote in the Senate, it goes back to the House for another vote, and then possibly to Gov. Brian Schweitzer for his signature.
“This is one small dent in the monopoly of PPL (Montana),” he said, referring to the company that owns a dozen power plants in Montana and provides power to NorthWestern at market rates.
“On this day, we ... have an opportunity to go back to our individual districts and say, ‘You know what, I tried doing something about deregulation,’ ” he said.
PPL supplies about two-thirds of the power that NorthWestern must buy on the market to supply its Montana customers. Laslovich said PPL has increased the price of that power by 50 percent since 2002 and is scheduled to increase it again this July.
But opponents lambasted the NorthWestern-backed bill as one designed to benefit the company by allowing the utility to saddle customers with the cost of a new plant, regardless of whether cheaper power might be available elsewhere.
They frequently compared the measure to the infamous 1997 utility deregulation bill, which was promoted by NorthWestern’s predecessor, Montana Power Co., and suggested that it could lead to similar unexpected consequences that are bad for consumers.
“What do we really have here today?” asked Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings. “We have an ill-conceived bill that comes out at the last minute, with amendments that put consumers at risk, so the utility company can prop up their stock to facilitate their sale (to an Australian company). Sound familiar?
“Let’s not do this again. Let’s just vote no.”
Democrats led the way on supporting the bill, as 19 voted in its favor. On the second and decisive vote of the evening, three senators switched their vote from “no” to “yes”: Democrat Dave Wanzenried of Missoula and Republicans Gary Perry of Manhattan and Bill Tash of Dillon.
Only nine of the chamber’s 24 Republicans voted in favor.
All four Democratic senators from Great Falls voted against the measure, saying it could sink the efforts of the city to participate in construction of a coal-fired power plant that will provide power to a group of electric cooperatives.
The bill prevents current NorthWestern Energy customers from choosing other suppliers, such as the city of Great Falls’ municipal utility, they said.
“I don’t think this is the right way to go,” said Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls. “We’re cutting down our options by doing this. This is stabilization for a company. This isn’t stabilization for the people of Montana.
Yet Sen. John Cobb,
R-Augusta, said NorthWestern wants only what electric cooperatives and the state’s other private utility, Montana-Dakota Utilities already have: A guaranteed customer base and the ability to own their own plants to supply their own customers.
“Why can’t we allow NorthWestern the same chance?” he asked. “We’re just going to treat them like everyone else in this state. They seem to work pretty well.”
Laslovich also ripped into the opponents in his closing speech, saying many of their arguments were based on phony appeals and emotion. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Alan Olson, R-Roundup, was introduced early in the session, and any delay in hearing the bill in the Senate was not at the request of the sponsors, he said.
“I’m sick and tired of these arguments,” he said. “If you have legitimate arguments against the bill, let’s hear a legitimate argument.
“If we have the audacity to do what is right on this floor on this night, in 20 years or 30 years we can look back on this night and say, this was one of the proudest moments for the Montana Senate. I hope we don’t look back, if this motion fails, and say it was one of the saddest moments.”
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