Public Service Commission

by Nathan Bourne

Pathfinder

The Seeley Lake Community Council hosted a candidate forum, May 9 at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. Candidates from the Public Service Commission (PSC) District 4, House District (HD) 92 and Missoula County Commissioners races answered various questions from moderator Klaus von Sutterheim and the audience.

This week the Pathfinder is featuring the candidates for the PSC. Look for HD 92 and County Commissioners in the following weeks.

Three PSC candidates attended the forum: Gail Gutsche, Mark Sweeny and Lee Tavernier. All three are Democrats in a primary race vying for the chance to take on Republican incumbent, Bob Lake. Lake was unable to attend the forum.

The PSC is responsible for regulating privately owned public utilities that have a monopoly. For instance, electricity is typically purchased in Montana from private companies and consumers do not have a choice as to the company they purchase it from. Other regulated services are privately owned including water, natural gas and solid waste companies. The PSC does not regulate co-ops and publicly owned utilities.

Candidate Info

Gail Gutsche has lived in Missoula for 24 years. She has served four terms in the Montana House of Representatives.

During her time in the House, Gutsche spent time on the Judiciary Committee, Fish Wildlife and Parks Committee and Natural Resources Committee. She was the Vice Chair for four of her eight years on the Natural Resources Committee.

From 2009 through 2012 Gutsche served on the PSC.

"I have both policy making as well as regulatory experience," said Gutsche. "That's why I want to go back and build on the agenda that we started then."

Gutsche said that she worked to make utilities cleaner and leaner. She also worked to promote conservation of energy saying that the energy we save is the cheapest energy of all.

Gutsche recognized that coal power has been a big part of Montana's energy but she sees it transitioning to renewable sources. She said that coal is currently the second most expensive energy while wind is our second cheapest energy source.

"We will be moving off some of the Colstrip facilities and the PSC will be instrumental in figuring out what resource fills those gaps," said Gutsche.

Gutsche said she has always been a promoter of renewable energy and sees a great future in Montana in the industry.

Gutsche also wants to create the bipartisan commission as she did in the past. Currently the PSC has five Republicans and she doesn't feel that they always make the best decisions for the consumer.

Mark Sweeney is a third generation Montanan who grew up in Eastern Montana. He said he remembers when Colstrip's power plants one and two and later three and four came online and how important it was to the area's tax base.

Sweeney feels that time is limited for Colstrip (at least one and two) because of outside factors. He explained that states like Oregon and Washington are passing laws to limit purchasing of coal-produced electricity.

"Without really having a say, we can see that coal is going to be phased out and we need to replace that with something," said Sweeney. "I believe this next PSC is going to be very important to make sure that the rates we (consumers) pay aren't affected by regional markets that we don't have a say in."

Sweeney says there are lots of alternatives available like a wind farm near Colstrip that would use existing transmission lines to Oregon and Washington.

Sweeney feels that in the past the PSC job has been treated as a part time job and he is committed to serving full time as a full time job.

Lee Tavenner grew up on a ranch in Deer Lodge, Mont. He went to Harvard University and Antioch College before returning to Montana and settling in the Flint Creek Valley.

In the Flint Creek Valley, Tavenner put together the 500 KW Little Gold Hydroelectric plant in 1988. That plant is still producing electricity today and sells power to Northwestern Energy.

In 1994 Tavenner moved to Missoula and started Solar Plexus LLC. The company specializes in solar power and small hydro installations.

Tavenner is the only candidate with experience in energy production.

"I have a history with the PSC," said Tavenner. "If you own renewable energy in Montana, and in order to get represented, you have to show up at the PSC and get involved in the hearings and so forth and I've done that."

Tavenner would like to promote rooftop solar if he is elected. He feels that rooftop solar is the most important resource coming online. Tavenner feels that it will be one of the cheapest resources, producing power at the place where power is being used.

Rooftop solar is locally owned, takes up no additional land and requires no additional transmission lines.

This source of power typically utilizes net metering and Tavenner wants to protect that.

Net metering is when a solar (or another local source) produces more electricity than can be used at the site and is sold back to the electric company through the grid. When not enough electricity is produced locally, then the needed power is purchased from the grid.

The controversy is in setting the price. Is the power generated worth the same to the electric company as the power it sells back to consumer? Net metering makes the rate equal and Tavenner supports that.

1. What distinguishes the three of you from each other?

Sweeney has experience as a county commissioner instead of legislative experience. As a commissioner in Anaconda, Sweeney worked to bring in jobs and sought energy production as an industry to do that. During his time as commissioner they encouraged Northwest Energy to construct a 150-megawatt natural gas plant using existing infrastructure left over after the smelter was shut down in the 1980s.

Tavenner feels that one of the PSC's main jobs is setting rates. His long time experience producing power with small hydro and solar qualifies him to do the job and he has the best insight into how rates are set.

Gutsche has served on the PSC, giving her experience in the position of setting rates and dealing with regulation. Gutsche also feels that her experience as a legislator making policy is important because the PSC regularly works with the legislature both presenting and defending bills and then testifying and attending hearings.

2. What do you think of the Mountain Water issue in Missoula and public ownership of water supplies?

Tavenner thinks that the only business the PSC has in the issue is the rates. He feels that the sale of Mountain Water to the city will be determined by the courts and when it becomes publicly owned, the PSC will no longer have jurisdiction over their rates.

Gutsche is in favor of public ownership of Mountain Water. When on the PSC, Gutsche voted for the sale of Mountain Water for the purpose to make a pathway to public ownership. She said all the other major cities in Montana own their own water. All those cities, with the exception of one, provide water at a much lower rate than Mountain Water does under private ownership. Part of why they can is that the city can borrow money at a much lower interest rate than private companies.

Sweeney said that having been a city-county commissioner, he could not imagine not owning the city's water publicly. He explained that the city of Anaconda's water used to be private but the city purchased it. It's easier for the city to do repair and upgrade work rather than a private company tearing up city streets.

3. Does the PSC initiate bills that it takes to the legislature like bills relating to rooftop solar and net metering?

Gutsche explained that as a state agency the PSC does generate bills. Also, when she was on the PSC they regularly would vote on whether or not the PSC would support particular bills and then commissioners would testify on those bills.

Sweeney would like to see bills to give the PSC more teeth. He said in the Mountain Water case in Missoula, the PSC should have had the ability to stop the utility from being sold while it was in the middle of an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Tavenner wants to protect net metering, keeping the price of solar power the same as grid power. He feels that it will be a mess if power companies get to set the rates in which they purchases excess power.

4. Do you support making it easier to put in solar installations and net metering?

Tavenner said that is his main goal.

Sweeney feels that Tavenner has a real conflict of interest running for the PSC due to his ownership in a solar equipment business and the fact that he is involved in a micro hydro facility that the PSC will be regulating. Sweeney resigned a position at a bio-fuel company to avoid the conflict of interest.

Tavenner doesn't feel that he has a conflict. He has been committed to renewable energy for much longer than he has been in the business. Like any other service he said if there were a conflict he would simply recuse himself in the particular issue.

Gutsche supports net metering. She said that Northwestern Energy has been resistant to the idea because they say it costs them more to accept the power. They don't know where the power is coming from, how much they will get or when they will get it.

Gutsche said there is a study being done by the legislature to determine if there really is a cost with accepting solar power from individuals. She feels the legislature will only get so far due to limited resources but that the PSC is in a better position to do the study. She feels it should be studied to make it the best arrangement for both the power companies and individuals who want to install solar.

5. Isn't it a little self-serving for an electric utility to say that their power is worth more than the solar electricity that a homeowner produces?

Gutsche said it is but you have to keep in mind that the charge PSC is to make sure that these privately owned utilities provide energy at rates that are "fair and just." That doesn't always mean inexpensive. The company must have an opportunity to make a profit otherwise they are not going to do it.

Sweeney agreed with Gutsche and added that he feels that when Northwestern Energy asked for $900 million from its consumers to buy hydroelectric dams and was given the financing to do it, it puts the consumers in a better place to negotiate issues like net metering.

Tavenner expects companies to be self-serving in the sense that they are like any other company and want to make the most profit possible. It's the PSC's job to regulate that and take the place of what would normally be competition between companies.

6. What do think of the increasing monopolization of the waste companies in Montana?

Sweeney said that he thinks that since the PSC regulates competition in waste management that they should also regulate the rates but he didn't think that they currently do.

Tavenner didn't feel that he could comment on the issue without doing more research.

Gutsche said that no matter if its energy, transportation, water or waste that the PSC is regulating, when a regulated company wants to take over a new territory or start business in a territory they have to come to the PSC. The PSC hears from interveners in the issue and if it will hurt another business or consumers then the PSC would disallow it.