Page 25 - Flathead Beacon // 7.20.16

last week that supporters of Initiative 182 had gathered 26,668 veri ed signatures. I-182 seeks to reverse legislative and legal action that gutted a 2004 voter-ap-
proved law that legalized the substance. If approved, the measure would lift
improvements,” NTSB Chairman Chris- topher Hart said in a letter last week to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
people are
RAVING
about
MOROCCAN
inspired tiles
come see the & different materials
PATTERN VARIATIONS
today
MASTERPIECE
CARPET ONE
family owned and operated
2541 US HIGHWAY 2 E • KALISPELL (406) 752-0924 • WWW.CARPETONE.COM
(855) 757-4351 • WWW.MASTERPIECELIGHTINGONE.COM
Tom Simpson with the Railway Supply a three-patient limit for caregivers Institute,whichrepresentstankcarman-
that is scheduled to go into e ect next month, establish licensing fees to pay for administering the program and include post-traumatic stress disorders among the conditions for which medicinal mar- ijuana can be used.
Another measure still awaiting certi- cation seeks to repeal the state law that permits the medicinal use of marijuana.
HELENA
4. State Health Employees Fired
After Giving Data to Lawmakers
ufacturers and owners, said the industry is committed to putting stronger cars in place. Members of the group will meet deadlines for replacing or upgrading the cars, he said, noting that demand for rail cars has eased after crude-by-rail ship- ments decreased over the past two years in response to lower oil prices.
“The need to modify or install new cars isn’t as urgent as when the rule was issued,” Simpson said.
In recent years, accidents involving the older cars have occurred in Oregon, Montana, North Dakota, Illinois, West Virginia and Canada.
COLSTRIP
6. Large Montana Coal Plant to Close
2 Units
A large Montana coal plant serv- ing utility customers across the Paci c Northwest agreed last week to shut down two of its four units by 2022 and limit pol- lution from the plant until that happens, underasettlementwithenvironmental- ists who sued over emission violations.
Terms of the partial shutdown of the 2,100-megawatt Colstrip plant were con- tained in a consent decree led in U.S. District Court in Montana.
The move follows a wave of coal plant closures that have transformed the util- ity industry in the United States, as cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas replaces coal as the dominant fuel source for electricity generation.
The latest announcement comes in the heart of coal country and is likely to reverberate through the election season, as Republicans seek to topple Montana’s Democratic governor, Steve Bullock. The state holds almost one-third of the nation’s known coal resources.
The portions of the plant slated to close under Tuesday’s agreement — units 1 and 2 — opened in the 1970s. Their pres- ence transformed a sparsely populated agricultural area of southeastern Mon- tana into the bustling industrial town of Colstrip.
Bullock reacted angrily to news of the shutdown, saying the state had been left out of discussions over Colstrip’s future that took place among attorneys involved in a 2013 lawsuit from the Sierra Club and Montana Environmental Information Center.
“The parties in the lawsuit took care of themselves. There’s nothing about the workers, nothing about the community,” Bullock said. He said his would work with Colstrip leaders to ease the impact by seeking out economic development grants, but he acknowledged there was little he could do to reverse the planned closure.
It’s uncertain how many of Colstrip’s 360 workers could lose their jobs, but PSE President Kimberly Harris indicated in a statement that Colstrip Units 3 and 4 will continue to operate well into the future.
Montana health o cials red two state employees for turning over per- sonal information, including Social Secu- rity numbers, of scores of childcare pro- viders to three state legislators, accord- ing to documents and interviews with people involved in the terminations.
Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services o cials recently con rmed that the employment of the two workers was terminated last fall after internal checks discovered the unauthorized release.
The data included personal informa- tion of 185 childcare providers taking part in an early childhood service pro- gram, according to letters sent by depart- ment director Richard Opper in Febru- ary and March to the three legislators, Rep. Tom Burnett, Sen. Roger Webb and Sen. Bob Keenan.
Copies of the letters were obtained by The Associated Press and con rmed by health department o cials.
“It’s a very serious issue,” said depart- ment spokesman Jon Ebelt. “It’s a viola- tion of public trust.”
A former auditor with the agency, David Hansen, con rmed during an interview that he was red in November. He was identi ed in Opper’s letter as the source of the information given to the legislators. The other employee’s iden- tity has not been released.
BILLINGS
5. Upgrades to Unsafe Tank Cars
Could Take 15 Years, Board Says
Accident-prone tank cars used to haul crude oil and ethanol by rail could remain in service for another 15 years under fed- eral rules that allow companies to phase in upgrades to the aging eet, accord- ing to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
Transportation o cials and railroad representatives have touted the rules as a key piece of their e orts to stave o future disasters, following a string of ery derailments and major spills that raised concerns about the crude-by-rail industry.
Yet without mandatory, periodic benchmarks for meeting the require- ments, the decision to upgrade to safer tank car designs “is left entirely to tank car eet owners, and may be driven by market factor in uences, not safety
JULY 20, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
25