City told to release power plant documents

An exasperated District Court judge has ordered the city of Great Falls to make public nearly all the documents detailing the financial relationship between the city and a power plant developer. T h e M o n t a n a Environmental Information Center filed a lawsuit nearly three years ago seeking information about the city's stake in t h e p r o p o s e d Hi g hwo o d Generation Station being developed by Southern Montana El e c t r i c Ge n e r a t i o n & Transmission. "The city made bad decisions, all in the name of SME," Anne Hedges, MEIC program manager, told the Great Falls Tribune. "Hopefully that's coming to an end." The MEIC sought information on the obligations the city made on behalf of its residents in partnering with SME in plans to build a coal-fired power plant near Great Falls. When they could not get financing for the plant, the cooperative decided to pursue a gasfired plant. The cooperative lost $9.1 million of its $40 million investment when the power source changed and the city of Great Falls lost about $1 million of its $2.3 million investment.