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.