UPDATE 11/6/24: THE ELECTION RESULTS are In, and we have much to be THANKful for! THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED US WIN!

First, I’m grateful to God for the good people of Montana who are brave enough to stand for what they believe and gracious enough to do it without demeaning others.

I’m grateful for the power of truth and our positive message about the excellent work we have accomplished at the Montana Public Service Commission these past 4 years -- including setting the once troubled agency on a better path, expanding consumer choice, AND saving Montana utility customers millions.

I’m grateful for every voter who was able to exercise discernment in the face of intense deception and hateful rhetoric pushed by my opponent, the democrat party network, and the anonymous dark money donors who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing her.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue serving all Montanans, and I invite my opposition and supporters alike to visit www.JenniferFielder.com to learn about the amazing strides we’ve made at the PSC and the important work we do on your behalf. Montana faces real challenges, and we can better meet them if we strive to work together with open minds.

May God bless our great State, and nation, with peace, prosperity, freedom, and love for one another. May He help us all keep the lights on in our homes and in our hearts.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Fielder

IN HER FIRST TERM, FIELDER RESTORED GOOD GOVERNANCE, EXPANDED CONSUMER CHOICE, INCREASED SERVICE QUALITY & SAVED MONTANANS MILLIONS.

Since being elected in 2020 to the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC), Fielder has executed numerous regulatory cases that improved service quality, expanded consumer choice, and saved Montanans more than $35 million dollars (scroll down for details). Fielder also led the vital strategic planning, technology modernization, and internal policy reforms that improved public access to Commission business and resulted in higher standards of conduct, order, and performance throughout the agency.

In 2023, Fielder was unanimously elected by fellow Commissioners as the Commission Vice President and later that year the PSC received its best fiscal audit in a decade. Plus, for 3 straight years now, the PSC earned 100% perfect scores on all of its federal PHMSA audits.

Prior to joining the Commission, Fielder was a popular, award-winning Montana State Senator and nationally recognized advocate for Liberty. Her 4 years on the Commission (2020-24) and 8 years as a lawmaker (2012-2020) follow 20 years of professional planning, design, and project management that involved the types of industries regulated by the PSC -- including railways, pipelines, power plants, telecommunications, water works, solid waste management, and federal energy regulatory proceedings.

LET'S SET THE 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.

ABOUT The 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.

PURE MONTANA...

FIELDER's CAMPAIGN IS FUNDED 100% BY REAL MONTANANS. THANK YOU MONTANA!

Unlike the opposition, Fielder does NOT accept contributions from out of state interests or individuals, groups, or corporations which stand to profit from PSC decisions. 100% of Jennifer Fielder's campaign funding came from the good people of these Montana communities:

· Bridger, MT

· Glendive, MT

· Helena, MT

· Hot Springs, MT

· Huson, MT

· Joliet, MT

· Kalispel, MT

· Lakeside, MT

· Laurel, MT

· Libby, MT

· Lolo, MT

· Missoula, MT

· Noxon, MT

· Plains, MT

· Polson, MT

· Ronan, MT

· St Ignatius, MT

· St Regis, MT

· Superior, MT

· Thompson Falls, MT

· Whitefish, MT

· Whitehall, MT

· Wibaux, MT

EXPANDING CONSUMER CHOICE..,

FIELDER BROKE THE GARBAGE MONOPOLY AND PAVED THE WAY FOR BETTER SERVICE & LOWER PRICES.

"Republic Services of Montana won't have a monopoly on garbage service in Missoula County anymore." - Daily Montanan

Commissioner Jennifer Fielder successfully led the effort to expand consumer choice for garbage service in Missoula County, ending decades of over-pricing and other bad behavior by the incumbent carrier. Fielder chaired the 5-day evidentiary hearing in Missoula which exposed a litany of evidence pointing to the need for competition.

The Daily Montanan reported: “Despite numerous (customer) complaints, Republic downplayed them as if they were inconsequential,” said Commissioner Jennifer Fielder, who represents the district that includes Missoula County and made the motion to approve the new operator. “And those complaints were serious and significant.”

With Fielder's support, the Commission has allowed new Montana businesses to start serving other areas of the State as well. Happy consumers have been getting better service at lower prices ever since.

READ FULL DAILY MONTANAN STORY HERE: Public Service Commission allows second garbage hauler in Missoula County.

AWARD WINNING PUBLIC SERVICE

As a liberty-leaning legislator, Senator Fielder earned an "A" rating for steadfast defense of the 2nd Amendment; received the prestigious "Keeper of the 10th" award for outstanding defense of the rights of the States and the People; and won the 2019 Legislative Appreciation Award from one of Montana's largest sportsmen's organizations for protecting our right to hunt, fish, and trap.

In 2024, the PSC's Centralized Services Division (CSD) received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Performance. Commissioner Fielder's leadership and hard work was instrumental in transforming this unit into one of the best CSD's in the state.