Transmission Line Politics in Montana

If you got a little deja vo reading Matt Gouras AP piece today about  the"hot topic" eminent domain issue facing the Montana Legislature, you were likely not alone.

40 years ago it was a different 500 kV transmission line project, this one being built by Puget Sound Energy, Montana Power Company and the Bonneville Power Administration to export the output of Colstrip units 3&4 to the Pacific Northwest.

Today the line would run north to south, instead of east to west, and is intended (and in all reality will) export wind energy from Montana.  Even dissenters have to acknowledge that to scratch the surface of the approximately 1 million MW of wind energy potential in Montana, that export based transmission lines must be built.

The deja vo moment of 1970s saw the Montana Legislature take a number of actions to protect landowners.  The eminent domain statue is littered with amendments from the 1973 session to protect the rights of landowners.  But perhaps the most substantive result was the passage of the Major Facilities siting act in 1971 & 1973, the result of which provided a substantive review process for major electrical facilities and clear requirements to demonstrate need by their developers.

Today the legislature is not focusing on rebuilding the substantive process of the major facilities siting act (gutted by Republicans in 2001), but rather is considering a number of bills that would either greatly expand the right to condemn private property (in one case to foreign corporations).

The Governor has already staked out his territory on the matter as solidly pro transmission development, leaving the substance and nature of the actions up to the Legislature.  With both houses solidly in control of Republican hands, it is that party, and that party alone, that is driving eminent domain policy in Montana.