“We wouldn't be having the kind of energy choices we have in Montana if we hadn't deregulated back in 1997,” she says, noting that Mood, as a state legislator, voted for the 1997 bill that launched electric utility deregulation. “I think it's hugely important in terms of how we got where we are today.”
Mood, running for re-election to the commission that regulates utilities, says his vote 11 years ago is irrelevant, and that people should judge him by his work on the PSC the last four years.
Mood, a former partner in a Seeley Lake sawmill, says he's been an even-handed commissioner who has decided cases in the best interest of consumers and the state, and will continue in that mode if re-elected.
Yet even without the deregulation issue, the electoral battle in this seven-county district that runs from Libby to Hamilton to Deer Lodge is a corker, with two candidates presenting two very different philosophies on energy policy.
Mood calls Gutsche “an ideologue pushing an agenda,” which he says is favoritism toward alternative and renewable energy, regardless of what it will cost consumers.
“I don't have preconceived notions,” he said. “I make decisions based on evidence presented to the commission. If they can make the case to me that a wind farm is economic and will be a good project for the ratepayers, I'll vote for it. If they can't, I won't.”
Mood, 64, who spent eight years as a state House member before winning election to the PSC in 2004, notes that he voted to approve Montana's largest wind farm at Judith Gap as a project providing power to NorthWestern Energy customers.
Gutsche, 54, a writer and consultant from Missoula who was a state legislator from 1999-2006, says she's no ideologue.
But she's more than willing to say that, as a commissioner, she would pursue programs and vote to encourage energy conservation, energy efficiency for homes and businesses and renewable, home-grown power, such as small wind, solar and geothermal projects.
“(Mood) talks about the supply side, to dig and drill (for power),” she says. “I talk about conservation and energy efficiency. We can either stay the course or the status quo, which isn't working, or look at new technology and start moving us in a new direction for our energy future.
Conservation and energy efficiency “are the least expensive things we can do,” she adds. “We can encourage more programs for people and businesses so they can keep the lid on utility rates.”
Gutsche also raps Mood for his vote against permitting Green Taxi, a new Missoula business that has hybrid vehicles operating as taxi cabs. Green Taxi, which won PSC approval on a 3-2 vote with Mood voting against it, has provided a new alternative for Missoula and hasn't hurt the existing Yellow Cab taxi company, she says.
The PSC has regulatory authority over some transportation businesses.
Mood says his vote against Green Taxi simply followed legal precedent that said if research showed the existing carrier - Yellow Cab - would be “harmed” by a new competitor, the new carrier's request should be denied.
The three Democratic commissioners overruled precedent “because they liked the word ‘green,' ” Mood says. “I don't care about the word ‘green' one way or the other. If (Green Taxi) met the conditions, I would have voted for it.”
Mood says his approach - deciding regulatory cases before the PSC based on the facts, rather than emotion or politics - is why voters should re-elect him.
That approach led him to vote against an Australian firm's buyout bid for NorthWestern in 2007 and push for new guidelines for the company to buy natural gas, he says. Both decisions have turned out to benefit consumers and the company, he adds.
As for NorthWestern, the state's dominant electric-and-gas utility, Mood says his votes on the PSC will help rebuild the company into a utility that owns its power production again and will provide dependable, affordable power well into the future.
“I'd like to see them be a very boring company that is not in the headlines all the time, because they are so dependable and steady,” he says.
Gutsche says she, too, wants to work with NorthWestern and other commissioners to develop more regulated power sources that the company controls, “to bring the cost of power in line as best we can.”
But she also says voters should consider that it was the 1997 deregulation bill that led to the breakup of NorthWestern's predecessor, Montana Power Co., and selling of its power plants, which had provided regulated, affordable power.
“The vast majority of people do recall deregulation and are perfectly clear what that's done to their electric bill,” she says. “That's why I think deregulation is important in this race.”
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