Northwestern Energy wants to increase your energy bills again. The Public Service Commission, which regulates our monopoly utility companies, will have a rate case hearing soon determine if they will allow NorthWestern Energy (NWE) to raise our energy rates by 20%.
If approved, regular Montanans would bear the brunt of these increases, which would fund the Yellowstone County Generating Station methane gas plant near Laurel and further investments in Colstrip's coal-fired plant. Methane gas has repeatedly proven unreliable during extreme weather events. In 2021, Winter Storm Uri caused widespread rolling blackouts in Texas when most gas-powered backup systems failed. A year later, Winter Storm Elliott triggered similar outages along the East Coast, where gas plants accounted for the majority of power plant failures. Colstrip has also shown its unreliability, falling short during peak energy demand periods in both January and July of last year. This failure forced NorthWestern Energy to buy more expensive energy on the market to meet demand.
Montana has the second-highest wind energy potential and the fourth-highest solar energy potential in the country. Renewable energy is also the least expensive form of energy but NorthWestern has built the Yellowstone County Generating Station — the most expensive kind of gas plant — and now wants customers to foot the bill for the costly, unreliable, and outdated Colstrip coal plant. Why? Because NorthWestern earns a guaranteed profit on every capital investment, paid for by ratepayers. The more it spends, the more it profits — all at the expense of Montanans, to the benefit of shareholders and top executives.
In 2023, NorthWestern Energy was granted a massive rate increase. So long as NWE continues to make excessive profits with these outrageous rate requests, they will continue to be disincentivized to diversify their energy sources and invest in more wind, solar, and storage. Montanans already have the fourth highest energy costs in the country. The PSC is our greatest chance at stopping this out of control monopoly and protecting Montanans' futures. Montanans are already struggling with skyrocketing electricity costs and can't afford another rate hike. Urge the Public Service Commission to reject NWE's rate increase.