The development of energy resources is typically dependent upon the availability of infrastructure such as hydrocarbon pipelines and transmission lines. Many of the issues concerning energy development and consequently infrastructure construction focus on the impact of climate change generated by a particular energy resource. The continuing controversy over the permitting of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline…
Category: Montana transmission
The Continuing Saga of the Utilities’ Death Spiral
For those of you who are fighting numerous proposed high-voltage (HV) transmission projects, take some solace in the idea that “time is on our side”. There are lots of reasons for that, but one of them has always been that technology and the market would unfold and develop in ways that would, and should, make HV transmission largely…
Power Companies Losing Out To Rooftop Solar??
—by John Vincent, former Montana Public Service Commissioner America’s utility industry, “Big Power,” is, by their own admission, scared. Made up of large corporations with huge and profitable investments in centralized generation and long distance, high voltage transmission (profits mostly guaranteed by monopoly status and government regulation), they are facing what their own industry calls…
Energy Efficiency and Small-Scale Solar Power Threaten Utilities’ Bottom Lines
Power company revenue is under siege by energy efficiency and small-scale solar power, says a Fitch ratings analyst. Rooftop solar power and energy-efficiency programs will eat into utility revenue and profit margins and discourage investment in new transmission projects within five years, a Fitch Ratings analyst said. Utilities in stagnant or low-growth markets in the…
Eminent Domain in Montana – The Montana House Fails Landowners
Now that the Montana legislative session is over, here is my tally is on what landowners got out of the session regarding private property rights and specifically those rights related to merchant transmission lines: – HB 417: this bill requires that a condemnor provide landowners a final written offer prior to initiating a condemnation complaint….
Montana Senate Bill 180 Goes To The House
Montana rural landowners are gearing up to push Senate Bill (SB) 180 through the Montana House. SB 180 will repeal the power of eminent domain granted via the Montana Major Facility Siting Act (MFSA) as legislated in the 2011 session under House Bill 198. I’ve spent much time since the last Montana legislative session delving…
Montana’s Legislative Response to Secretary Chu’s Use of Power Marketing Administrations to Upgrade the Electric Grid
Last Saturday, the Montana Senate unanimously adopted Senate Resolution (SR) 2 in response to the Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu’s March 16, 2012, memorandum that outlined his plan to upgrade the electric grid using power marketing administrations. The plan would utilize the nation’s four power marketing administrations (PMAs) – the Bonneville Power Administration,…