PSC should listen to both sides

Public Service Commissioner Roger Koopman has not looked at the history of renewable energy development in Montana and he does not know the real costs of electric generation, certainly a requirement in his job as a PSC commissioner.

Renewable energy in Montana is the least expensive new generation resource. The largest wind farm serving NorthWestern Energy in Montana, Judith Gap, costs the utility 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, less than any other generation resource in the state.

Requiring utilities to purchase renewable energy was smart in 2005 and it is today. Koopmans assertion that wind farms will be built “at any cost” shows his ignorance of policy. There are built-in caps on the cost of energy in the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and there are several ways utilities can comply cost effectively. No utility has ever needed to apply for a waiver from the RPS based on the cost caps. The reason? Renewable energy is cost-effective.

Water is indeed a renewable energy source. In fact, the RPS allows new hydroelectric energy if the generator is less than 15 megawatts. The RPS was intended to develop new low-impact resources, not to give a bonus to corporations for improving power plants that they would improve anyway, as PP&L lobbied to do in both 2007 and 2011 legislative sessions.

Environmentalists love hydroelectricity too, but Koopman chose to ignore the impact of new hydroelectric dams — farmers, watch out! Your farm can become part of the new Koopman reservoir.

The renewable energy tax breaks were put there to level the playing field dominated by conventional generation, heavily subsidized in the past. I think that Koopman’s property tax barb was cherry picking. I did look up Wyoming’s industrial property tax rate and it is 11.5 percent. I suggest we put all of the tax incentives given to industry and get rid of all of them — fossil fuel breaks and renewable energy breaks. Renewable energy would win if all the costs were accounted for.

Koopman’s statement that Montana’s environmentalism is based on high income people unconcerned with wage earners is wrong. Montana’s environmentalism is common people voting with their conscience and their pocketbooks. The people who suffer most from bad environmental policy are the poor.

The PSC should take a longer view, assuring low energy costs for future generations, not only for the next quarter. Too often people only become concerned with their health and environment when they are directly affected by pollution. There is a saying — there are no atheists in foxholes, and so you become an environmentalist when there are tar balls floating into your shrimp net or you can’t eat the fish you catch from the lake. We all need to be concerned with our environment.

Paying a little more for clean energy looks like a pretty good deal when your kid is having an asthma attack aggravated by dirty air or has autism caused by mercury he breathes. The anti-environmental agenda totally ignores the costs of a dirty environment — the costs we do not see on our power bills — but these costs are very real.

Koopman is pitched against the people he is supposed to serve, resorting to inflammatory language and name calling to gin up support. Instead of working to build consensus he is partisan. I suggest that Mr. Koopman work with voters in his district to understand issues, seeking solutions that work for all. Renewable energy is a job creator, and we all need to support its development.

My favorite quote by Thomas Edison: “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”