Senate Bill 331 has emerged as one of the most significant and controversial bills of the 2019 Legislative session.
Backers of the proposal say it shores-up baseload electricity generation for the state's largest utility, NorthWestern Energy, while giving some hope to the community and workers in Colstrip, where the Colstrip power plant is located.
But opponents say the bill does little more than give the monopoly utility and its shareholders a "blank check" courtesy of NorthWestern Energy's electricity ratepayers.
In the first installment of a special two-part Montana Lowdown podcast, longtime environmental advocate Anne Hedges of the Montana Environmental Information Center explains why she and other opponents think SB 331 is the worst bill since the Legislature's deregulation of Montana's power industry in 1997.
