18 April 2019 — 1027 mdt

MT House creates opportunity to sneak
defeated SB-331 into another bill

More Colstrip and Northwestern mischief — skullduggery might be a better word — is afoot. An hour ago, the MT House voted 52–48 not to concur in the MT Senate’s amendments to HB-597, a bill that revises utility regulation. That sends the bill to a conference committee, where the conferees may incorporate the gist of defeated SB-331, Sen. Tom Richmond’s sweetheart bill for Northwestern Energy.

One has the sense that deals may have been cut — deals that only can be bad for progressive regulation and Northwestern’s ratepayers.

Both the Republican and Democratic caucuses split their votes on HB-597. The tallies for that vote, and for the House’s third reading on SB-331 are below. You can download the table as an Excel spreadsheet.