County gets say in MSTI location

By Nick Gevock of The Montana Standard | mtstandard.com

BOULDER - A judge ordered state officials here Wednesday to meet with Jefferson County commissioners to give them a say in where a proposed major power line should be built within the county.

Judge Loren Tucker said the state Department of Environmental Quality hadn't done enough to let county officials give input on the best route for the controversial Mountain States Transmission Intertie, or MSTI, power line. The NorthWestern Energy 500kV line has been in the planning stage for over three years.

"DEQ has concluded and insisted that Jefferson County should be kept out of the process for a certain period of time," Tucker said in Boulder district court with more than 40 people in the room. "Jefferson County should have ample time to consider all of the data."

The ruling was a major victory for the county.

Commissioners sued DEQ this year to try to force the agency to sit down and listen to their concerns over where the line should go. They asked for an injunction that would halt the line until the county is consulted.

State officials at the time said they had tried to involve commissioners as much as possible. Lawyers for DEQ and NorthWestern Wednesday reiterated those arguments, saying the county knew of the line three years ago and submitted comments during the "scoping period" for the environmental impact statement.

"They imply that they've been blindsided by the project - that somebody came to them on Aug. 8, 2008, and said ‘Here's this huge project,'" said John Tabaracci, a lawyer representing NorthWestern. "The fact is they were consulted a year and three months before that."

Ed Hayes, DEQ attorney, said the agency accepted comments from the county both before and well after the two-month scoping period in 2008. He argued Jefferson County was given ample opportunity to comment and did so.

But Peter Scott, a Helena lawyer hired by Jefferson County, said scoping is merely used to identify the issues surrounding a project. He said the real input needs to come in planning the route for a line, of which Jefferson County was completely shut out.

"Scoping cannot satisfy the requirement to consult: in order for that to occur you have to know what the impacts are," Scott said. "The scoping notice does not say this will be the only opportunity that Jefferson County has to sit down with DEQ face to face and identify the issues it may have."

And state law requires that state officials consult with cooperating agencies, including local governments, Scott said.

Tucker agreed. He said while he rejected the county's view that scoping provides no significant input, the law doesn't set parameters about when an agency must consult with local governments. Tucker added his ruling in favor of the county was due to DEQ's position that it is not required to consult with local governments while planning, which he said is contrary to state law.

"The Legislature clearly set out that a county's opinion is to be considered," he said. "There is an ongoing duty to consult."

Jefferson County Attorney Matt Johnson said the ruling is a victory for county and city governments statewide.

"State agencies will have to include local governments far more during the drafting of an EIS," he said.

- Reporter Nick Gevock may be reached at nick.gevock@mtstandard.com

In Whitehall: More MSTI debate

Town meeting draws hundreds of Whitehall residents

By Justin Post of The Montana Standard | mtstandard.com

WHITEHALL -- Hundreds of Whitehall-area residents turned out Wednesday for a town hall meeting on the proposed new Mountain States Transmission Intertie, or MSTI.

Residents had an opportunity to ask pointed questions of a NorthWestern Energy representative as well as state and federal officials working on the project.

Mike Cashell, NorthWestern chief transmission officer, heard criticism of the project as well as concerns from Jefferson County commissioners who say they haven't adequately been involved in planning.

Commissioner Tom Lythgoe said a portion of the project known as "scoping" has been completed, but questioned whether the agencies reviewing the project will allow more time for input from the local government.

"It's not a legal issue, it's a moral issue," he said.

Montana Public Service Commissioners Brad Molnar and John Vincent, the local representative for the commission, told the audience that it's up to them to challenge the project.

Vincent said he doesn't believe the project is economically viable, nor are there generators on contract to purchase space on the proposed line.

He believes the country should focus on reducing its energy use before building new transmission such as the MSTI line.

"I think it would serve as a monument to poor state and national energy policy," Vincent said.

Molnar, meanwhile, alerted the audience that he believes the new line could permanently link Montana energy prices to more expensive California markets, regardless of which alternative is chosen for the line.

A recently preferred alternative by the state Department of Environmental Quality calls for the line to run down the Jefferson Valley near Whitehall and then along Interstate 15 through Beaverhead County.

The line has been fiercely opposed by land and homeowners along the route, who say it would devastate property values.

The 500-kilovolt power line is proposed by NorthWestern to run from Townsend to near Twin Falls, Idaho.

Residents questioned whether the project would serve to boost company profits rather than the betterment of Montana or the nation.

And while a majority of the line would cross private property in the Whitehall area, the question brought out a large audience that included many ranchers and property owners.

Jefferson County commissioners told the audience they have sued over the drafting of an environmental impact statement, or EIS, for the project with hopes of biding their time to review the documents.

The release of a draft EIS has been stalled pending the outcome of that lawsuit. The case continues Sept. 8.

Longtime DEQ employee Tom Ring of the agency's major facility siting section, said he was aware of only one EIS during his career that hadn't cleared the permitting process.

The DEQ ultimately makes the final decision on permitting following the EIS and public comment process, and that decision may be appealed.

- Reporter Justin Post may be reached at Justin.post@lee.net or by telephone, 496-5572.

Crowd rails on MSTI proposal

By Nick Gevock, The Montana Standard, Butte | mtstandard.com

Aug. 06--DILLON -- Beaverhead County residents who packed a public forum here Thursday evening said a proposed large power line would only benefit shareholders of NorthWestern Energy while coming at local landowners' expense.

"You say economic growth -- economic growth for who?" said Loraine Kriegel, a ranch owner near Dillon, to a representative from NorthWestern as a crowd applauded. "Should you make money on the backs of us to benefit the shareholders."

That was the common theme from more than 150 people who came to a public forum at the University of Montana Western campus on the proposed Mountain States Transmission Intertie. The 500 kilovolt power line is proposed by NorthWestern to run from Townsend to near Twin Falls, Idaho.

A recently preferred alternative by the state Department of Environmental Quality calls for the line to run down the Jefferson Valley and then along Interstate 15 through Beaverhead County. The line has been fiercely opposed by land- and homeowners along the route, who say it would devastate their property values.

The meeting was held by the Beaverhead Outdoors Association and Keep It Rural, an ad hoc group in Dillon formed to fight the power line.

Mike Cashell, NorthWestern chief transmission officer, said the line is needed to help meet the demand from new wind power generation plants. He said the company is required under federal law to let any power generator hook into its grid.

"The wind blows in Montana -- these generators are locating all around the state," he said. "The bottom line is we don't have enough transmission to serve these customers who are coming on line."

But numerous people, including some on the panel of speakers, blasted the proposal as a boon for people on Wall Street to the detriment of Montanans.

John Vincent, local representative on the state Public Service Commission, said he believed MSTI would fail on its own economics. He said green power loses its environmental friendliness when its shipped so far, and said the cities that would get the power are already getting renewable energy closer to home. And he said it would undoubtedly harm Montana.

"There's a very real question whether this project is needed at all," he said. "This project is going to scar Montana's landscape -- it's an industrial eyesore."

Vincent added that inevitably there would be a lot of coal-fired power on the line because the wind doesn't always blow.

Leonard Wortman, a Jefferson County commissioner, said his county sued the state to try to require more review because they say no benefit for Montanans. He said it's wrong to expect Montana ranchers to suffer significant property value losses to power lights in Las Vegas and air conditioners in California.

"Green energy needs to be produced locally," he said.

But Cashell, after a series of comments criticizing the line, said that he too loves the Montana outdoors, yet he sees the need for economic growth as well.

"To me, there's a balance," he said. "I also understand the need of our nation, our state, for energy."

Kriegel, who said she works on Wall Street, said she saw a recent NorthWestern presentation in which the company boasted it would double its worth by building the $1 billion line.

And Peter Tomaryn, a retired lawyer and landowner whose property would have the line go through it, said NorthWestern is motivated by pure greed to build MSTI. He called for the crowd to band together and sue to stop it.

"These people want to make as much money as they can, and they really don't care about our concerns," he said. "This is terrible for Montana."

Reporter Nick Gevock may be reached at nick.gevock@mtstandard.com.

Commissioners hold MSTI meeting in Twin Bridges

Written by Greg Lemon

TWIN BRIDGES – Don’t let anyone tell you people in the Jefferson Valley can’t agree on anything.

Judging by the meeting last Thursday at the Twin Bridges High School, they all agree on one thing – they don’t want NorthWestern Energy’s proposed transmission line in their valley.

The meeting was held by the Madison County Commissioners and featured presentations from NorthWestern Energy, the Bureau of Land Management and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

The focus of the meeting was the Mountain States Transmission Intertie, which is being proposed by NorthWestern Energy and would be a 500-kilovolt power line between Townsend and a point in southern Idaho near Boise.

Originally, the proposal called for the line to be built along a line between Townsend and Three Forks and then follow Interstate 90 to Interstate 15 west of Butte. Then the line was slated to go south into Idaho along the Interstate 15 corridor.

But early drafts of the draft Environmental Impact Statement have changed the preferred alternative route to run south through the Jefferson River Valley next to the towns of Whitehall, Silver Star and Twin Bridges. This route is known as alternate route 2c.

This change in the proposal has captured the concerns of Madison County residents and officials.

The impetus for MSTI was the demand NorthWestern was receiving from people who were looking to generate wind power and needed a way to transmit the power, said Mike Cashell, NorthWestern’s chief transmission officer.

Under the federal energy deregulation statutes, NorthWestern must provide electricity producers access to its transmission system. If they don’t have a transmission system that will accommodate the electricity, then they must expand the system, Cashell told the crowd of nearly 150 people.

However, if the company must expand their transmission capabilities to accommodate more electricity, then cost will be paid by contracts with the electricity generators, not ratepayers, he said.

“We have a lot of customers who want to connect to our system,” Cashell said. “Our transmission system isn’t built today to provide service to all those transmission customers. We’ve got thousands of megawatts of potential generators who want to connect to our system.”

NorthWestern presented its proposal for MSTI to Montana DEQ and the BLM in July of 2008. The review began then and the two agencies are lead on the process to develop a draft EIS, said Tim Bozorth, with the BLM out of Dillon.

Work on the draft EIS has been held up some by a lawsuit filed against the Montana DEQ by Jefferson County Commissioners over the process of analyzing MSTI.

However, Bozorth is optimistic the draft EIS can be released next month.

“We hope to get it out by mid-September for a three month public comment period,” he said.

As it’s planned, MSTI is too big for the Jefferson Valley, said Cam Cooper of Twin Bridges.

“Huge is too small of a word for MSTI, the scope of which is huge,” Cooper said.

She rattled off the statistics for the crowd: towers up to 140 feet tall, right of ways 220 feet wide and the entire project would be about 430 miles long.

And as a result of MSTI, Madison County would see very little permanent job creation, while residents would see their property values plummet from having the 500-kilovolt lines going either through or near their land.

Cooper implored the Madison County Commissioners to stand against MSTI.

“Show the same guts and commitment as the Jefferson County Commissioners have,” she said to a loud applause from the crowd. “MSTI is a mess. Help us stop this MSTI madness.”

Someone asked Cashell why the preferred route was changed from going through Butte to down the Jefferson River Valley.

Cashell didn’t have an answer, since the change of preferred route was done during the development of the draft EIS, which is still on going. And until the draft EIS is done, it’s hard to know for sure what the preferred route will be.

“I don’t know that it’s fair to say yet that the route has been changed,” he said. “Right now they’re all just routes.”

When asked if NorthWestern Energy would use eminent domain to acquire right of ways from unwilling landowners, Cashell said yes, but it wouldn’t be their preferred method.

“We don’t like to use eminent domain and we use it very infrequently,” he said.

He also reminded people that eminent domain was a court process where the easement value was determined.

“What eminent domain does is it takes the process to the courts and the courts determine what is right,” Cashell said.

For Leonard Wortman, Jefferson County Comissioner, the eminent domain issue is a big deal. In Jefferson County, much of MSTI’s proposed route is on private property.

“I’ll be darned if I’ll stand by and let a big corporation or government take land from residents in Jefferson County so Las Vegas can run their lights all night,” Wortman told the crowd, receiving a loud applause.

The fate of MSTI is still unknown. NorthWestern Energy is currently going through what is called an “Open Season” process to sign up electricity generators who would use MSTI to long-term supply contracts.

If there isn’t enough demand to build the line, then it won’t get built, Cashell said.

“If the economics don’t work for us, then we won’t build the line,” he said.

Also an unknown is the outcome of the draft EIS process. Once it is issued, the BLM and DEQ will diligently seek public comment, Bozorth said.

But ultimately each agency – state and federal – involved is going to have to issue separate decisions concerning MSTI, he said.

The meeting was informative for Madison County Commissioner Dave Schulz.

It’s clear Madison County residents are not in favor of MSTI coming down the Jefferson River Valley, Schulz said after the meeting.

“Tonight helped align me with how I think I need to react to this,” he said.

When asked if he was in favor of MSTI, Schulz responded: “From what I heard tonight, no.”

Madison County Commissioner Marilyn Ross has been working hard to gather as much information as she could about MSTI. The information presented on Thursday night, she’d heard before. The point of the meeting was to get the public more informed.

“That’s what we really hoped would happen,” Ross said. “I really think (the meeting) was a success in that regard.”

Like Schulz, Ross believes the sentiment from Madison County residents is decidedly against MSTI coming through the Jefferson Valley. And she agrees.

“At this point I certainly think that this particular route … is not a good route,” she said.

The next public meeting concerning MSTI will be sponsored by the Beaverhead Outdoor Association and Keep It Rural on Thursday, Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. in the Swysgood Technology Center on the campus of the University of Montana Western in Dillon. Montana Public Service Commissioner John Vincent and representatives from the Madison County Commissioners, NorthWestern Energy and the BLM will be on hand to discuss potential local impacts of the proposed MSTI line.

Draft EIS?

It seems the release of the draft EIS by DEQ is being delayed.

Some think it will be in June.

More time to organize and bone-up on the issues...

Get down to the meeting in Whitehall on Wednesday!

MSTI INFORMATIONAL MEETING -

WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 31st, 7 PM.

BACK ROOM OF BB'S SPORTS ARENA,

13 WEST LEGION, WHITEHALL.

PLEASE BRING FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

Hi Everyone – Come on down for an informational meeting on the MSTI project taking place on Wednesday, March 31 - 7 pm, in the back room area at BB's Sports Arena in Whitehall, 13 West Legion. This is strictly a meeting for helping people get at information about MSTI.

We will have maps, comment contact information, whatever economic information is really out there, and other information on land owner rights, conservation easements, etc. This is a non-partisan meeting, so please come with a community spirit in mind.

For further information,

call:

Debbie Hanneman Hanneman@jeffersonvalley.net

Sue Pullman 490-9439

Marie Garrison 491-4548

Marsha Freman 287 9103