Lawmaker advocates state-owned utility facilities

HELENA - A leading advocate for public ownership of utility operations in Montana may try again to get state government into the energy business.

But Sen. Ken Toole, D-Helena, said Monday his new proposal differs from a ballot measure he pitched in 2002. That initiative, which got only 32 percent of the vote, would have required the state to buy the power-generation dams owned by PPL Montana if a special commission found such a deal to be in the public interest.

Toole submitted a revised version of that measure to legislative staff for the mandatory legal review Monday.

The new proposal would...