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Pennsylvania’s Talen Energy to shut down by July 2022. The plant’s two newer units, which are co-owned by those companies and four others, will continue operating.
The most contentious bill in the package would charge Puget Sound and Talen $3 million a year for the rst ve years after the shutdown, plus the full amount of property and licensing taxes they would have paid had the plant been operational. The owners would pay a decreasing percentage of those taxes for ve more years.
Sen. Duane Ankney, R- Colstrip, who proposed the package, said the bill is not meant to punish Colstrip’s owners, but to ensure that workers and the commu- nity are treated fairly by the companies that promised permanent employment in Colstrip.
“You can bet if they shut Puget Sound Energy down, the executives of that company would leave that company with golden parachutes 10 times more than what this bill costs,” Ankney said. “This bill’s going to treat everybody equally.”
But Ankney and Sen. Cli Larsen, D-Missoula, acknowledged bitter feel- ings after they traveled last winter to Olympia, Washington, and failed to gain support from lawmakers there to require Puget Sound Energy to keep the two older units running during a transition period.
“We thought the votes were there to give us a soft landing,” Larsen said. “We were misled, and this is a reaction to what we found over there.”
HELENA
3. Zinke Touts Advancing Bills, Juneau Takes Aim at Super PACs
A U.S. House committee advanced two bills by U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke last week as his Democratic opponent, Denise Juneau, took aim at the rst-term con- gressman with a proposal of her own.
The House Natural Resources Com- mittee’s endorsement of Zinke’s bills gave the Republican an opportunity to showcase legislation he is sponsoring two months before Election Day.
One bill would grant federal recogni- tion to the Little Shell Band of Chippewa
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SPOKANE
1. Police: Nephew of Montana Sen. Tester Killed
Homicide investigators say they sus- pect a nephew of Democratic Montana Sen. Jon Tester may have been killed with an ax in his home just outside Spokane.
The Spokesman-Review reports 35-year-old Bob Tester was found dead in his living room the morning of Sept. 6. A wood-cutting ax was reportedly found near his body along with bags of marijuana.
Court documents say Bob Tester’s 8-year-old daughter was home at the time and told authorities a man entered the house wielding a sword and a knife.
Documents say the child likely didn’t see the killing but that she called her grandmother to report his death. The girl’s grandmother told deputies her son grew marijuana for dispensaries.
Jon Tester’s press o ce con rmed the relationship to the paper and said “his family would prefer privacy during this di cult time.”
HELENA
2. Panel Sends Colstrip Closure Bills to Montana Legislature
Montana lawmakers advanced a bill package last week that aims to blunt the economic impact of a coal- red power plant’s planned partial closure by levy- ing millions of dollars in fees and taxes against the plant’s owners.
The Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee voted to send ve bills to the 2017 Montana Legislature after a lengthy debate over whether the measures are actually meant to punish the out-of-state companies that own the two Colstrip power plant units slated to be shut down by 2022.
Colstrip is one of the largest coal- red plants in the West and a major eco- nomic driver in southeastern Montana. Its future has been in question amid low coal prices, increasing federal regula- tions and lawsuits led by environmen- tal organizations.
A settlement in one of those lawsuits calls for the two older units owned by Washington’s Puget Sound Energy and
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SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM