There is a letter to the editor in today's paper from a lady in Olive, Montana. Olive is located 10 miles north of Broadus. She claims that more than 120,000 Montanans need the power plant and that 40% of the geographical area of Montana plus a portion of the Great Falls area will be serviced by this plant.
Let's take a look at what SME's website says:
* 65,000 Montanans are serviced by SME.
* Great Falls has a population of 57,000. The service area includes the city limits of Great Falls.
* Service area encompasses 22 counties in the states of Montana and Wyoming, nearly 58,000 square miles or 40% of the total land area of Montana.
I'm making the assumption the letter writer used this information to try to convince us why this plant is so sorely needed, but there are a couple of problems:
1. The writer claims that more than 120,000 Montanans will depend on this power. SME says 65,000, but when you add the population of Great Falls to the mix, 57,000, the total comes to 122,000. This is not the first time the folks down south have assumed, or been led to believe?, all of Great Falls will benefit from this boondoggle.
2. The letter writer claims 40% of the total land area of Montana will be serviced. I may have misinterpreted SME's wording, but I take their statement to mean that the land mass includes Wyoming as well, which when combined with Montana, equates to roughly 58,000 square miles or 40% of the land mass of Montana. (I find it hard to believe that 65,000 Montana SME customers live in 40% of the state).
It's obvious SME does a great job of spin and the gullible folks down south have not done their homework to get the real facts.
Let's take a look at what SME's website says:
* 65,000 Montanans are serviced by SME.
* Great Falls has a population of 57,000. The service area includes the city limits of Great Falls.
* Service area encompasses 22 counties in the states of Montana and Wyoming, nearly 58,000 square miles or 40% of the total land area of Montana.
I'm making the assumption the letter writer used this information to try to convince us why this plant is so sorely needed, but there are a couple of problems:
1. The writer claims that more than 120,000 Montanans will depend on this power. SME says 65,000, but when you add the population of Great Falls to the mix, 57,000, the total comes to 122,000. This is not the first time the folks down south have assumed, or been led to believe?, all of Great Falls will benefit from this boondoggle.
2. The letter writer claims 40% of the total land area of Montana will be serviced. I may have misinterpreted SME's wording, but I take their statement to mean that the land mass includes Wyoming as well, which when combined with Montana, equates to roughly 58,000 square miles or 40% of the land mass of Montana. (I find it hard to believe that 65,000 Montana SME customers live in 40% of the state).
It's obvious SME does a great job of spin and the gullible folks down south have not done their homework to get the real facts.
2 comments:
It's not that they're gullible. It's just that they will receive a really good deal on all of this, and so they want it.
But wait. Look further. Because, you see, SME has only updated part of their site.
On the Project information page, it does in fact say "These providers of public power and related services have embarked on a course of action to ensure that their members/consumers – approximately 120,000 Montanans – will have a locally-owned and controlled supply of electric energy."
On the Public Information page it says "that will be earmarked to meet electrical energy needs of approximately 120,000 Montana energy consumers at “cost-based” rates."
In the draft EIS it states "its best course of action to meet the
electric energy and related service needs of approximately 120,000 Montanans." In the Final EIS it is corrected to state "up to 120,000 Montanans."
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