The following is some bad news about the MT Public Service Commission setting rates that will kill future small solar development projects in the state. I'm thinking that it will be challenged in court.
"Montana’s new terms for small solar projects might have been knowingly set to discourage development, based on a conversation caught last week on a hot mic.
Speaking with staff during a mid-session break, Public Service Commissioner Bob Lake acknowledged that cuts made that morning to rates and contracts offered to small renewable energy projects are likely deep enough to kill future development. By federal law, the commission’s actions were supposed to promote renewable energy.
At issue are the PSC’s actions last Thursday to reset the rates and contracts for qualifying renewable energy projects up to 3 megawatts in size. Each project is large enough to power several hundred homes. States are required to set a price and contract lengths to promote alternative energy resources under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, or PURPA, which has been on the books since the energy crisis of the 1970s." . . . .
Read more at:
http://billingsgazette.co...0394e.html