Fielder holds off Independent challenger to retain PSC seat
Laura Lundquist
(Missoula Current) Republican incumbent Jennifer Fielder is favored to win a second term as Montana Public Service Commissioner for District 4.
In the tightest race of three PSC commissioner seats that were up for grabs in 2024, Jennifer Fielder was leading Independent candidate Elena Evans with 55% of the vote at noon on Wednesday with a third of the precincts fully reported, according to the Montana Secretary of State website. District 4 runs along Montana's western border from mid-Ravalli County north to Lincoln County.
Fielder led by 60% or more in Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Ravalli and Sanders counties, all of which were fully reported except for Flathead County. Only Missoula County favored Evans, who led by 64% of 44,200 votes counted.
By mid-morning Wednesday, Fielder had posted a statement on her campaign website, saying how grateful she was to be allowed to keep serving on the PSC, but she also accused Evans of "intense deception and hateful rhetoric.”
"I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue serving all Montanans, and I invite my opposition and supporters alike to learn about the amazing strides we’ve made at the PSC and the important work we do on your behalf. Montana faces real challenges, and we can better meet them if we strive to work together with open minds," Fielder wrote on her website.
Evans did not return requests for comment.
As Missoula County’s environmental health manager, Evans has, among other things, helped lead the effort to get the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a more thorough investigation of contamination on the Smurfit Stone mill site.
About six months ago, Evans jumped into the 2024 PSC race as an Independent after the PSC approved NorthWestern Energy’s request for a 28% hike on residential electricity and gas services. She said voters needed a choice and she didn’t want the PSC to approve additional energy costs.
Since she entered the race after the primary, she had to collect a minimum of 3,050 signatures from constituents to get on the November general election ballot. By late June, she had 6,763, according to her campaign website.
Fielder, a Thompson Falls resident, was first elected to the PSC in 2020 after serving eight years in the Montana Legislature. In the 2024 primary, she ran unopposed, with almost 32,000 people voting in support.
On Oct. 25, 2023, the PSC voted 5-0 to approve a settlement with NorthWestern Energy that would result increase residential energy rates by about 8% compared to what they were paying in October 2023. But the agreement resulted in a 28% increase in residential energy rates since August 2022. A month ago, the Daily Montanan reported that the agreement increased rates from $91.27 a month in August 2022 to $116.63 on average for residential customers, according to an exhibit from the case.
"Fielder says the PSC didn’t approve NorthWestern Energy's 2021 request. On her website, Fielder says what the PSC approved was “a rate increase averaging less than 6% per year over a 4 year period. Nearly half of this 6% increase involved ‘flow thru costs’ like property taxes and energy supply costs that the PSC had no lawful authority to deny.”
In an email, Fielder said the settlement cut NorthWestern Energy's request by $32.3 million.
In an August Zoom call hosted by the Montana Environmental Information Center, a PSC expert broke down the finances that NorthWestern Energy provided for its justification for increased rates.
NorthWestern’s revenue is divided into three sources: transmission and distribution or T&D; power generation; and a Power Cost and Credits Adjustment Mechanism or PCCAM, which is adjusted on a quarterly basis and isn’t included in the base revenue determined by the PSC.
Looking only at base revenue, NorthWestern is requesting increases of $101 million for T&D, which would be a 27.9% increase over the current $363 million, and $62.7 million increase for generation, which would be a 26.3% increase over the current $259 million. Therefore the base revenue increase - minus PCCAM - is about 26%.
NorthWestern dropped that percentage to around 8% by adding PCCAM into the total, which has nothing to do with the money overseen by the PSC. So the total is exaggerated and the percentage misrepresents how much more the customer is being charged.
There were no incumbents in the other two PSC races. Republican Brad Molnar led Democrat Susan Bilo with 60% of the vote in District 2 in south central Montana with about half of the 116 districts reporting. In District 3 in southwestern Montana, Republican Jeff Welborn led Democrat Leonard “Lenny” Williams with 62% of the vote with three-quarters of the districts reporting.