FERC allows Jackson to serve as intervenor

[The July 10 print edition of this story had incorrect information. This is the corrected version. It will run in the July 17 edition.]

POLSON — A federal agency has accepted a state senator’s request to act as in intervenor in federal  proceedings related to the sale of Kerr Dam to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Sen. Verdell Jackson, R-Kalispell, fielded a motion to intervene with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in June intended to stall or halt the federal license allowing the tribes to operate the dam.

On Tuesday, July 8, the commission issued a notice granting intervention by both Jackson and Lake County, which filed a separate motion.

Jackson believes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and utility supplier NorthWestern Energy do not have the “proper authority to convey the Kerr Project to a tribal government,” because it would violate existing contracts and reduce tax funding to schools and Lake County.

“History bears out the fact that Kerr Dam serves everyone in many ways. It is an important observation that producing power was secondary to irrigation,” Jackson wrote in a response to PPL Montana's argument against allowing him to intervene.

.“The 1930 Flathead Power Development report for the Kerr Project identified four interests that have guided the management and operation of the Kerr Project since its inception, including the tribes, the general public, the irrigation project composed of Indians and settlers, and the power company.”

The sale of Kerr Dam will reduce certain tax funding to Lake County and its public schools, Jackson fears.

“Our economy in Western Montana is built on tourism and agriculture,” he wrote in his reponse. “It is necessary to intervene at the juncture in the proceedings to make sure that each licensee or any transferee is able to meet the obligations of the previous licensee, including maintaining a balance between power revenue and the other purposes for which the project was built such as irrigation, flood control, fishing, boating, tax payments, electricity rates, and public responsiveness.”

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes would be the first Native American entity to own and operate a dam, which the Tribal Council will rename, tribal spokesman Rob McDonald said.

Some non-tribal ratepayers fear the tribes might raise rates but McDonald said the commission will still regulate the cost just as it always has.

“People won’t see a difference,” he said.

The plan in place calls for the tribes to assume control in September 2015, McDonald said.

Jackson, an irrigator, is also against implementation of the proposed tribal Water Compact and opposes giving up water rights to the tribes or anyone else.

Jackson wants the commission not to issue a license to the tribes until after the sale is complete, and then to issue the license, “as to minimize the disruption to and destruction of the local and regional economies.”

After extensive hearings and a negotiation decided through arbitration in March, the tribally owned Energy Keepers will pay $18.2 million to purchase Kerr Dam.

The tribes offered $14.7 million while dam-owner PPL Montana was asking $50 million. Jackson claims the dam is worth more than $200 million.

Tribal Council has said the only difference ratepayers will see is that more economic benefits will stay in the valley instead of going to Pennsylvania, where PPL Montana is headquartered.

The tribes already operate Mission Valley Power.