Four priorities. The first one drives the other three: it is what pushes rates up, it is where the secrecy is worst, and it lands hardest on rural counties and tribal land in eastern Montana.
The problem. Announced data center commitments in Montana total about 1,400 megawatts against a system that serves roughly 750 average megawatts today. Projects are moving in Broadview, under discussion in Great Falls, and already operating in Hardin. Contracts between the utility and these customers can stay private while the rate impact is public, and there are no settled rules on who pays for the generation and transmission needed to serve them.
My position. Montana needs rules before it needs more megawatts. I support a separate customer class for very large loads, cost responsibility that stays with the customer causing the cost, public rate terms for captive customers, water review before approval, and financial guarantees covering what happens when an operator shuts down.
I will not vote to approve a large load arrangement whose rate terms the affected customers are not allowed to read.
The problem. Montana power rates have risen more than 25 percent recently. The commission sets rates for 524,786 metered electric and gas customers, about 60 percent of the market, and those customers are legally captive. They cannot shop for a different provider, so the only protection they have is the commission itself.
My position. A rate increase should have to prove itself. I will hold requests to documented need rather than projected comfort, look hard at what customers are being asked to finance, and weigh the households with the least room to absorb another increase as a first consideration instead of a footnote.
Every rate case I vote on will come with a plain language explanation of what it does to an average monthly bill, published before the vote.
The problem. The commission has had credibility problems, including a 2020 email spying scandal and more recent workplace misconduct allegations. Meanwhile it has ruled that utility contracts with data centers can stay private. When the body that sets your rates keeps its own conduct and its biggest deals out of view, people stop believing the outcome was decided on the record.
My position. Open deliberations, free of corporate influence. Rate terms affecting captive customers belong on the public record. Genuine trade secrets can be handled narrowly and explained, rather than used as a general reason to close the file.
I will publish my reasoning for every vote I cast, in language a ratepayer can read without a lawyer.
The problem. District 1 covers most of eastern Montana and spans 20 state house districts. It includes Billings, Great Falls and Miles City alongside farming and ranching country and four tribal nations: Fort Peck, Fort Belknap, Northern Cheyenne and Crow. Energy and telecommunications decisions made in Helena show up here as a bill, a dropped call, or a project on the next section of land, usually after the comment period has closed.
My position. Direct representation means the hearing comes to the county, the notice arrives before the decision, and tribal governments are consulted as governments rather than as members of the public. Broadband and telephone access in rural and tribal areas belong on the commission's agenda, not at the bottom of it.
I will hold public meetings in District 1 counties, including on reservation land, in every year of the term.
When a utility asks to charge more, the commission decides whether it can, and by how much.
A decision on NorthWestern Energy's proposed merger with South Dakota based Black Hills Energy is pending and could be completed by the end of 2026.
How very large customers are classified, contracted, and charged. Nine parties intervened in that docket.
Telephone and broadband service quality and access, which in rural and tribal areas of District 1 is still the difference between a working business and a closed one.
District 1 is the largest Public Service Commission district in Montana by geography. Gas money and yard signs are most of the budget. Anything you can give goes straight into reaching voters who have never been asked about their power bill.
