LISTEN:
Jennifer Fielder discusses Antifa warning, Missoulian endorsement
What was behind the Missoulian's endorsement of Jennifer Fielder for Montana Public Service Commission, and were they justified in changing course? Was Fielder's warning about Antifa a legitimate factor? Listen to her interview with Montana Talks and decide for yourself...
READ:
Is Jennifer Fielder "affiliated" with controversial ranching family?
In 2017, Senator Jennifer Fielder was an invited guest speaker at a local Town Hall meeting. She spoke about public policy work she was doing to reduce conflicts between western ranchers and federal land agencies. Some are using a press photo from that Town Hall to suggest she has an “affiliation” with the Bundys. But is there really an affiliation? Get the real story below...
LET'S SET THE 'RATE HIKE' RECORD STRAIGHT
NO, THE PSC DID NOT APPROVE NWE's REQUEST FOR A 28% RATE HIKE.
In 2022, NorthWestern Energy (NWE) asked for a 28% increase, but the PSC did NOT approve it. Those who claim the PSC did are incorrect. The PSC actually cut NWE's request by approximately $32 million, and what we ended up approving was a rate increase averaging less than 6% per year over a 4 year period. Nearly half of this 6% increase involved "flow thru costs" like property taxes and energy supply costs that the PSC had no lawful authority to deny.
In actuality, the portion of the rate increase the PSC had full discretion over amounted to about a 3.6% annual increase over 4 years to cover the cost of critical infrastructure including power poles, power lines, and gas and electric meters to safely and reliably keep delivering energy to Montana homes and businesses.
The Montana Consumer Counsel, which is the rate payer advocacy agency in Montana, agreed with our final decision, as did all other parties who had contested NWE's requested increase. If we had erred, critics could have taken us to court and won. But they didn't.
NO, THE PSC DID NOT APPROVE THE 10% RATE HIKE REQUEST in october 2024 EITHER.
On October 15, 2024, the Commission voted against allowing a 10.25% rate hike that had been requested by Montana Dakotas Utility (MDU). The motion to approve the rate increase failed with President Brown, Vice President Fielder, and Commissioners Pinocci and O’Donnell voting against the rate increase.
PSC President James Brown said of the Commission’s decision, “We have exercised the Commission’s discretion to deny an interim rate increase. In doing so, the Commission has sided with the people of Montana, who, since January of 2021, have been facing historically high prices for everything from housing to health care, food to insurance, diesel fuel and gasoline for the last four years. If we can spare Montana natural gas rate payers from yet another source of 'sticker shock' on their winter natural gas bills, I think we have a responsibility to do so.”
Vice President Jennifer Fielder added, “I’m concerned that some of the companies we regulate are not controlling expenses like they would if they had market competition. They need to tighten their belts and control spending just like the rest of us do.”
NO, MONTANA DOES NOT HAVE THE 4th HIGHEST ENERGY BILLS IN THE COUNTRY.
Actually, Montana ranks among the top 12 States in the union for its LOW COST energy rates. In fact, there are 38 states with HIGHER electric rates than Montana. See them all at Electricity Rates by State | October 2024 | Choose Energy.
ABOUTJENNIFER'S 2024 CAMPAIGN opposition...
NO EXPERIENCE: FIELDER'S opponent has zero experience with THE psc and has never attended a psc MTG.
While Jennife has been working hard for us, her opponent hasn't even bothered to show up at one single PSC meeting let alone participate in a rate case. Neither has the dark money group that is sending out all the attack ads and calling itself "Montana Ratepayers Association". Maybe that's why they are so wrong about all their "facts" including the price of energy in Montana. (For factual information, see Let's Set the Record Straight" above.)
NOT VERY "INDEPENDENT": OUR OPPONENT is funded by out of state DONORS, DEMOCRATS, AND dark moNEY.
More than 80% of our supposedly "Independent" opponent's campaign kick off funding came from out of state donors, and almost all of it can be traced to Democrats. Indeed, the Democrat party itself donated directly to the "Independent" and held fund raisers for her as well. But it gets way worse: Two unknown donors contributed a whopping $495,000 to a dark money group to back our so called "Independent" opponent.
The dark money group deceptively calls itself the "Montana Ratepayers Association" or MRA, but it has NEVER contested a rate case, testified on behalf of rate payers, or even so much as submitted a public comment on a PSC rate case in Montana. In fact, MRA is not even a registered business or nonprofit entity in the state of Montana. It is nothing but a political action committee that received most of its money from San Francisco with the stated purpose of backing our opponent (who has zero experience with the PSC and has never even shown up for a PSC meeting). These high-dollar donors haven't disclosed their true identities or corporate ties, but one former PSC Commissioner suspects they are "green energy" companies that expect to recover their hefty campaign investments by installing an unscrupulous Commissioner who would unfairly spike their profit margins, leak confidential information, and help them kill their competition. By law, these costs would then be passed on to actual Montana rate payers through their utility bills.
For more on the depths of the Dark Money infused into the PSC District 4 race, see the Daily Montanan article here.