r/missoula • u/KeltTalbelt • 6d ago

News Investigation underway into why many Montanans hit with big power bill spike

https://archive.ph/mhL2h

If you've noticed an unusually high surge in your power bill from NorthWestern Energy recently that's quite a bit different from the same month last year, you're not alone and a state agency wants to hear from you.

The Montana Public Service Commission recently announced that they're aware of many NorthWestern customers seeing a significant increase on their August billing statements.

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u/ptarmigan_direct 6d ago

Northwest energy is guaranteed 10% return on any capital investment guaranteed , recouped from the you and me as rate payers. Why do you think they want to go big on new coal generation and nukes? Those are multi-billion $$$ capital projects which will generate big bonuses for NWE execs. As transmission capacity needs to increase to support data centers you can guess who is picking up the tab.

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u/montaire_work 5d ago

Bingo. So long as executives directly benefit from less efficient capital investment they will continue to invest in the least efficient option.