Viewpoint: Fool me twice, shame on me
Michael Hoyt
Fred Thomas voiced his support for the Colstrip power plant in the Missoula Current on May 15, 2025.
In support of Colstrip, he downplays the plant’s emissions of CO2 and other pollutants harmful to human health, sidesteps the fact that Colstrip is among the most expensive and outdated energy sources in the nation, and claims Colstrip helps keep electric rates stable. While his assertion that Colstrip provides jobs is true, a transition to other types of electricity generation provides even more employment opportunities, often with much higher wages.
Given his history with electric generation in Montana, we should question what motivated Thomas to continue his support for Colstrip. When Thomas was pushing SB 390 (the deregulation bill) he claimed, “There has not been an industry that has been deregulated or restructured where the prices have not gone down.” He went on to say the bill was a “balanced, logical transition to customer choice of a competitive power supply.”
Then guess what happened! Deregulation ended up costing Montana citizens vast amounts of money. Before the Thomas’ bill which deregulated Monana’s electric companies, electricity cost 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour, the lowest-cost power in the region and one of the lowest in the country. Three years after the bill passed, Montanans paid 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour; average power bills exploded from $18.75 a month to $50.25, more than a 250% increase. As of February 2025, Montana had the highest-cost power in the region.
Oh, and what about those promised “jobs?” The 2001 Montana legislature’s research showed that deregulation caused the loss of more than 630 jobs.
While Thomas pretends the continued operation of the Colstrip power plant is a good idea, he ignores the fact that it produces power at considerably higher costs than natural gas or solar facilities while massively contributing to global warming emissions.
Northwestern Energy is not ready or preparing for the inevitable shift to renewable power production. Instead, the company is in denial and continuing to invest in an old technology that contributes to global warming.
In 2020, NorthWestern Energy tried to buy Puget Sound’s shares of Colstrip for $1. As things stand now, NorthWestern Energy will acquire Avista's ownership of Colstrip Units 3 & 4 (222 megawatts) and will acquire Puget Sound Energy's ownership (370-megawatts) of Colstrip Units 3 & 4 effective on Jan. 1, 2026. This was facilitated by the current Trump administration allowing Northwestern Energy to ignore current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules requiring coal plant emissions be diminished.
Since June 2022, Thomas has been a member of the Ravalli County Electric (REC) board of directors. A coincidence maybe, but the month he joined the board, REC began instituting a “demand charge” on ratepayers. Initially it was $.65 per kilowatt while electricity cost remained at $.0680 per kilowatt hour where it had been for years. In June 2024, the “demand charge” jumped to $1.495 per kilowatt. Then in April 2025, the “demand charge” more than doubled to $2.97 per kilowatt and electricity cost swelled to $.07136 per kilowatt hour. Adding insult to injury, the “fixed charge” jumped from $36 to $39 a month in April 2025.
So, why is Thomas in favor of Colstrip? Does he have a financial interest? Maybe he owns shares in Northwestern Energy, or perhaps he holds shares in Avista and/or Puget Sound Energy, two companies that are happy to saddle Northwestern Energy with the long-term liability of Colstrip ownership.
Given Thomas’ history—deregulation and a proponent of REC raising the price of electricity for their captive ratepayers—one thing is obvious. He is not now and never has been on the side of ratepayers like you and me.
Michael Hoyt is an independent environmental researcher and the author of guidebooks for the Bitterroot Mountains.