Toole has earned a second term
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Editor,
There’s a stark choice between Ken Toole and Bill Gallagher in the race for Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities and shapes all-important energy policy in Montana.
In the 1990s, Toole was Montana’s leading opponent of energy deregulation, which proved to be a disaster. Gallagher now claims he supports “re-regulation” (a proposal Toole initiated), but contradictorily advocates weakening public regulation of the industry.
As commissioner, Toole helped citizens take action against the QWEST Corporation for taking excessive profits, forcing QWEST to give $16 million in rate reductions and extend broadband service to 27 rural Montana communities.
Toole also wisely blocked the takeover of Montana’s biggest energy provider, Northwestern Energy, by a foreign investment bank-which subsequently went bankrupt. Toole has pushed for a rule that would require utilities to tell us how much they are paying their three top executives. He believes that when we are forced to give these monopolies our business, we have the right to know how wisely and fairly they are using our money. Gallagher vehemently opposes this, believing we should remain in the dark.
Gallagher owns a water utility near Helena, called Aqua Flo, which is owned by another company, called Aqua Sierra, which is incorporated in Nevada. Why? To avoid Montana taxes, while garnering Montana profits? At a PSC hearing, when Gallagher was directly asked to reveal who his co-investors are in Aqua Sierra, he refused.
Given Gallagher’s conduct of his own companies, how can we expect him to fulfill the PSC’s essential duty of making utilities transparent and accountable to the public?
Gallagher doesn’t advocate a move to cleaner sources of energy, even though these have proven to be better economically as well as environmentally.
Toole has consistently and pragmatically supported better energy conservation and efficiency, and the jobs and environmental benefits these solutions provide. He knows as much as anyone in the state about the complex world of emerging energy markets, and how we in Montana can take advantage of the vast economic opportunities in renewable energy.
Ken Toole has earned another term at the PSC.
Tom Smith
Charlo
