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Judge rules against Havre pipeline on farm taps

A state district judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging the Public Service Commission overstepped its bounds when it ruled Havre Pipeline and its parent company, NorthWestern Energy, could not abandon service to rural customers on connections known as farm taps without obtaining PSC permission.

The Public Service Commission said in a press release Wednesday that Judge Yvonne Laird issued the ruling Friday, granting the request of the PSC and Montana Consumer Counsel to dismiss the lawsuit.

Laird ruled that an identical matter was settled by the courts in 1995 and legal doctrine prevented duplicative litigation, the release said.

PSC representatives said in the release that they welcomed the ruling.

“This is only the latest in a pattern of frivolous litigation by NorthWestern Energy,” said Travis Kavulla, R-Great Falls. “The judge clearly saw it for what it was.” 

NorthWestern spokesman Butch Larcombe took issue with that characterization.

“We think some legitimate operational and legal issues needed to be resolved,” he said Wednesday.

At issue are the taps used by rural residents to tap directly into natural gas transmission lines. PSC ruled in 2016 that customers, who had tapped into lines through easement negotiations could not be cut off or abandoned without approval by the PSC.

In the past, when customers served by farm taps have lost service due to declining production at nearby gas wells or other issues, utilities have offered a free conversion to propane service and a certain time allowance of propane supply at the price of natural gas, the PSC press release said.

Larcombe said NorthWestern and Havre Pipeline have not decided what their next step is.

“We don’t agree with the conclusion that the judge reached, but we have not decided (whether to appeal),” he said. “We’re still kind of working through the decision and deciding where to go from there.”

He said the situation is not one that matches the company’s normal regulated services. The farm taps established in the easement negotiations had no guarantee on the life of the wells and how long the service would be available, he said, adding that another difference is that Havre Pipeline charges for the gas but the property owners own and maintain their own access system.

The company maintains those property owners are not regulated customers, he said.

About 80 or 85 taps have been affected, Larcombe said, possibly by wells running out of gas or by other issues. NorthWestern’s position is that it is the responsibility of the property owner to convert to another system, he said.

“A good chunk of those already converted,” he added. “Others contacted the PSC. That’s where this whole legal question arose.˘

Larcombe said he did no know how many of the taps had not converted.

The PSC press release said Havre Pipeline customers who have concerns about the company’s service quality to call or write the commission with concerns at 800-646-6150 or [email protected].

 

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