HELENA – PPL Montana said Tuesday it is still evaluating its options for dealing with a Montana Supreme Court order that the utility pay the state for the use of the riverbeds where hydroelectric dams sit.
PPL Montana has to cough up $40 million in current and back rent, along with more in future rent, under the March 30 ruling. The company has 90 days from that point to respond.
Company spokesman David Hoffman said the utility’s options could include an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He didn’t detail what other options may exist.
“We continue to spend a lot of time looking through those issues, and we really haven’t made a final decision yet,” Hoffman said. “Certainly an appeal to the Supreme Court is an option. Obviously on any appeal it is hard to tell what your chances are.”
Hoffman said the company expects to make a decision soon.
But with every passing day, the amount PPL potentially owes Montana goes up. State law says court-ordered judgments accrue interest at a rate of 10 percent a year from the original decision, which in this case is the District Court order dating back to mid-2008.
Attorney General Steve Bullock, whose office argued for the state in court, has said the next move is up to PPL.
The attorney general’s office says the cost of the judgment won’t be passed onto ratepayers since PPL is a deregulated electricity generator. The state’s largest utility, NorthWestern Energy, buys a lot of power from PPL but does so at prices determined by the open market, not necessarily the costs accrued by PPL.
The court decision means the land under the dams is like other public land that is rented out to those who graze cattle or drill for oil.
PPL has argued the decision could impact other river users.
But the state says the high court made it clear that farmers and ranchers who use riverbeds for irrigation are not under the same rental obligations as the power companies.
The court established the price for back rent but left the question of future rent up to the state Land Board to negotiate with the utility.