Northwest Newspaper Hydropower Articles

Utilities to keep state's hydroelectric dams

By CHARLES S. JOHNSON
PAP}Gazette State Bureau

HELENA - Montanans on Tuesday defeated Initiative 145, which would have allowed the state to buy 13 dams owned by private utilities to furnish public power.

In addition, voters rejected Referendum 117 and threw out a controversial energy law backed by utilities and passed on the last day of the 2001 Legislature. It was the major energy bill from the session.

And Montanans, voting in Referendum 117, appeared to reject House Bill 474, the major energy bill passed by the 2001 session.

The buy-the-dams issue attracted the most attention of the seven ballot measures this year.

Tammy Johnson, campaign coordinator for Taxpayers Against I-145, said she was delighted by the election results.

"This was designed to be a populist issue with very little facts behind it and we worked very hard and had a wonderful time, going through Montana and talking to folks about it," Johnson said Tuesday night. "We had a huge grass-roots campaign. We hit most of the county fairs, and it was wonderful to get out there and talk to the people."

Although early pre-election polls showed I-145 leading, later polls found that Montanans opposed the measure.

"People just don't really start paying attention to issues in an election until it gets much closer," Johnson said. "As the election started closing in, more people started reading about it. We had an effective campaign both advertising and grass roots and it was clearly effective. Montana voters made the right decision."

Don Judge, campaign coordinator for Dam Cheap Power, which sponsored I-145, said: "Given the fact that we spent $60,000 in cash and $40,000 in in-kind services. and they spent over $2.5 million, I think what we have done is create a wake-up call for Montanans about the impacts of electricity deregulation, the higher cost to consumers and beware utility companies, we're not through yet.

"Were going to keep dogging these guys," Judge said. "Rates are going to go up again July 1, and as Montanans become more aware of just how much utility companies are taking out of their pockets and out of the state's economy, they're going to be more receptive to doing something about it."

Backers drafted I-145 in response to the controversial Montana electric utility deregulation law passed by the Montana Legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Marc Racicot in 1997.Taxpayers Against I-145 mounted an aggressive campaign, raising more than $2 million, with nearly all of it coming from PPL Montana and Avista, which owned the 13 dams that could have been subject to state purchase. Supporters mustered only about $50,000 and were outspent 40-to-1.

The opponents ran television and radio ads for weeks, along with newspaper ads. They rounded up a number of groups to oppose I-145, including the Montana Chamber of Commerce and Montana AFL-CIO, two groups not often on the same side.

Backers of the measure ran no advertising, but did distribute fliers around the state.Dam Cheap Power, the group that wrote the initiative, drew support from the Montana Senior Citizens Association, Montana Progressive Labor Caucus and a few individual unions.I-145 called for creating a new Montana Public Power Commission, with five members elected to four-year terms in 2004 from the same five geographical districts as state public service commissioners.

Under the proposal, the commissioners' first assignment in January 2005 would be to conduct a study - or more likely, contract for a study - of the existing dams to determine whether it would be in the state's interest to buy them.

If so, the measure provided that the commission could negotiate with the utilities to buy the dams. If the utilities refused to sell, the state could use eminent domain to condemn that dams and pay a fair market value for them.

The measure provided that the state could issue up to $500 million in revenue bonds to finance the purchase. The bonds would be repaid for with revenue from the power sales, not tax dollars.

Backers of the measure said it would provide electricity for $13 a megawatt hour compared with the $31 a megawatt hour that PPL Montana is selling this power for.

Opponents contended that passage would result in a $17 million loss in tax revenue that the utilities now pay in property taxes for schools and local governments. Backers said the initiative requires the revenue to be reimbursed.

Gazette State Bureau
Helena,MT
November 6, 2002

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