Beginning last night, KFBB began a 2 part series on ECP and HGS. Here is the video and dialogue for their ECP interview aired last night:
The city of Great Falls plays a unique role in the power industry. Currently the city faces two major challenges: distributing power purchased from Southern Montana Electric through a program known as Electric City Power and its involvement in the controversial Highwood Generating Station. We begin with a closer look at Electric City Power.
It was created back in 2004 when the city entered the electricity business with the goal of bringing affordable power to its residents. However year after year, it’s fallen further and further into debt. Now five years after the program began it is more than a million dollars in the hole, which is in violation of city law.
According to city ordinance, Electric City Power must, "operate on a self-sufficient and self-sustaining basis and produce revenues at all times sufficient to pay all operating, maintenance, debt service, repair and replacement costs," but that’s something it’s never done. “It was never profitable. Not day 1, not day 2 and not today,” said City Commissioner Mary Jolley.
“Through February 2009 its still at a 1.2 million dollar deficit,” according to Coleen Balzarini, Executive Director of Electric City Power.
Taxpayers we talked to aren’t too happy about that. One man said, “If that’s the law, they should abide by it, we have to abide by our laws why shouldn’t they abide by theirs.” Another Great Falls resident suggested, “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that public ought to speak out.”
We asked City Commissioner Bill Bronson how a city program could be allowed to violate the law for so long. “We recognize that for most of the last four to five years it has been running in a deficit but that’s largely due to factor outside of our control.”
So who’s to blame?
According to Bronson the 2007 the legislature. They passed a law allowing Northwestern Energy to be the sole power provider in our area and essentially froze the Electric City Power or ECP customer base to whoever was signed up at the time. “Prior to the legislative change ECP had budgeted for much larger power supply and customer base that’s one of the primary reasons we were put into a deficit. Not because of any problems on our end but because of actions by outsiders,” Bronson said. That left the city’s power arm with excess amounts of electricity and over the years they’ve lost more and more money trying to sell it all off at competitive rates.
The newest city commissioner wants to end the program. “There are many many funds in the city of Great Falls that are used for instance the library, the sewer fund, the water fund all kinds of funds and the losses that Electric City Power is experiencing now are made up as loans from all these other funds,” said Jolley.
Still, others argue the million-dollar plus deficit can be made up. “Were looking at such things as revenue increases, the move to the blended rate to decrease our expenses,” said Bronson. “We anticipate that the deficit will disappear and the goal is to have that gone at the same time as the current long term contracts which go through 2011 at the same time that those expire so June 30th 2011 that we will have the deficit removed at that point.”
A key to the future finical success of Electric City Power is the Highwood Generating Station. The city has invested millions of dollars in the project and recently builders decided to change the power plant from a coal-fired to a natural gas facility.
But what do these changes mean for the city’s investment?
For part two of this story, tune in tomorrow (4/13) night.
It was created back in 2004 when the city entered the electricity business with the goal of bringing affordable power to its residents. However year after year, it’s fallen further and further into debt. Now five years after the program began it is more than a million dollars in the hole, which is in violation of city law.
According to city ordinance, Electric City Power must, "operate on a self-sufficient and self-sustaining basis and produce revenues at all times sufficient to pay all operating, maintenance, debt service, repair and replacement costs," but that’s something it’s never done. “It was never profitable. Not day 1, not day 2 and not today,” said City Commissioner Mary Jolley.
“Through February 2009 its still at a 1.2 million dollar deficit,” according to Coleen Balzarini, Executive Director of Electric City Power.
Taxpayers we talked to aren’t too happy about that. One man said, “If that’s the law, they should abide by it, we have to abide by our laws why shouldn’t they abide by theirs.” Another Great Falls resident suggested, “They shouldn’t be allowed to do that public ought to speak out.”
We asked City Commissioner Bill Bronson how a city program could be allowed to violate the law for so long. “We recognize that for most of the last four to five years it has been running in a deficit but that’s largely due to factor outside of our control.”
So who’s to blame?
According to Bronson the 2007 the legislature. They passed a law allowing Northwestern Energy to be the sole power provider in our area and essentially froze the Electric City Power or ECP customer base to whoever was signed up at the time. “Prior to the legislative change ECP had budgeted for much larger power supply and customer base that’s one of the primary reasons we were put into a deficit. Not because of any problems on our end but because of actions by outsiders,” Bronson said. That left the city’s power arm with excess amounts of electricity and over the years they’ve lost more and more money trying to sell it all off at competitive rates.
The newest city commissioner wants to end the program. “There are many many funds in the city of Great Falls that are used for instance the library, the sewer fund, the water fund all kinds of funds and the losses that Electric City Power is experiencing now are made up as loans from all these other funds,” said Jolley.
Still, others argue the million-dollar plus deficit can be made up. “Were looking at such things as revenue increases, the move to the blended rate to decrease our expenses,” said Bronson. “We anticipate that the deficit will disappear and the goal is to have that gone at the same time as the current long term contracts which go through 2011 at the same time that those expire so June 30th 2011 that we will have the deficit removed at that point.”
A key to the future finical success of Electric City Power is the Highwood Generating Station. The city has invested millions of dollars in the project and recently builders decided to change the power plant from a coal-fired to a natural gas facility.
But what do these changes mean for the city’s investment?
For part two of this story, tune in tomorrow (4/13) night.
3 comments:
Hey Bronson, ignorance is NO EXCUSE for breaking the law. This is what the citizen is told when facing any illegal act regardless of how minor it is whether they know it or not.
Blaming outside influences beyond your control sounds like "the dog ate my homework" excuse of a 9 year old.
Letting ECP continue its course knowing it is clearly against the law is equivalent to contempt of court.
I guess it's the legislatures fault ECP set rates below cost.
The mighty Bronson has spoken.
Christ... Bronson is an idiot. Here's a novel idea. If the state legislature won't let you do what you want to do, how about re-evaluating the whole plan? And if you can't come out ahead by going with an alternative, then get out and stop wasting the tax payer's money. Frickin 5 years of this horseshit, 1.2 million dollars in the hole, no chance of ever getting that money back... and this yahoo is pointing fingers to cover his ass. Is his seat up for re-election this November? I hope so and I hope the door hits his ass on his way out.
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