Viewpoint: Montanans paying the price for NW Energy decisions
Tyler Cross
It’s heating up in Montana—and not just the weather. Montana ratepayers have a lot at stake in the upcoming electricity and gas rate case being brought by NorthWestern Energy before the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC).
Before the rate case has even begun, NorthWestern Energy just covertly raised your residential electricity rates by 17% without the approval of the PSC. The PSC’s own staff recommended a much smaller increase, but the monopoly utility sidestepped the process and rammed the hike through anyway. As temperatures rise and demand spikes, Montana families are being forced to overpay for power.
How did NorthWestern get away with it? A little-known legal loophole and a lot of strategic manipulation.
When NorthWestern requests a rate hike, the PSC has nine months to approve or deny it. If no decision is reached, then NorthWestern can go ahead and raise the rates on their own. But NorthWestern exploited this rule.
In April, it filed a partial settlement agreement weeks after the PSC’s deadline, likely knowing the move would delay proceedings. The PSC had to postpone their hearing to review the new filings, and while they were doing their due diligence, the nine-month clock ran out. NorthWestern seized the moment to push through an increase three times higher than what PSC staff recommended.
Pulling off a move like this takes planning — it's calculated. NorthWestern Energy is treating Montana families like an ATM, squeezing us for every dollar while making minimal investments in affordable, reliable energy solutions. My jaw dropped learning that NorthWestern Energy’s out-of-state CEO, Brian Bird, makes about $2400 an hour — and now Mr. Bird is trying to fly away with more of our money.
Meanwhile in Washington, the same week this backdoor rate hike took effect, the U.S. House passed a budget bill that would slash federal investments in wind, solar, storage, and other clean energy industries. If enacted, this would halt Montana’s clean energy boom, raise energy prices for households and businesses, and cripple America’s ability to compete with the rest of the world on innovative energy.
Montanans already pay some of the highest energy costs in the nation. That’s not a
coincidence. It’s the result of decades of poor planning and an ongoing failure to invest in cost-saving solutions like energy efficiency, wind, and solar.
NorthWestern could decide to generate cheaper and cleaner energy, but instead they
repeatedly go in the opposite direction, dragging us all with them. They’re only interested in maximizing their own profits. After they got a 28% rate hike in fall 2023, the utility is back again, asking the PSC for another 26% increase for residential customers. But we do have a voice in this process. Public hearings on this case begin June 9 with time for public comments in person or via Zoom at 9 a.m. that day (and 8 a.m. each day after).
There is one bright spot: the Montana Shared Solar Act (SB 188) has finally reached Governor Gianforte’s desk. This bill would allow multiple households or businesses to share in the benefits of a single solar array, lowering bills and improving the reliability of our electricity grid. It’s a practical, popular solution for Montana families—and one we desperately need. It provides us one avenue of choice while being held hostage by a monopoly utility that will never stop squeezing us for all we’ve got. Call Governor Gianforte and urge him to sign SB 188 into law.
Montanans are under pressure from every angle: rising temperatures, prolonged wildfire smoke, soaring bills, and a monopoly utility gaming the system to make themselves even richer. It’s time for our elected officials at every level to step up and fight for us, rather than the big corporations.
Montana deserves an energy system that’s affordable, reliable, and fair. NorthWestern Energy is showing us that they’ll keep bending the rules to benefit themselves, and unless the PSC steps in, we’ll have no option but to keep on paying.
Tyler Cross works as an electrician in Missoula and sits on the advisory committee of
Montanans for Affordable Energy.