Havre Pipeline seeks 58 percent increase on rural farmsteads

Havre Daily News staff

The Montana Public Service Commission has announced that Havre Pipeline Company has requested an increase on its rates for customers listed as direct rural farmstead customers to go into effect Oct. 1.

The increase would take the rates for rural farmstead customers from 92.56 cents per thousand cubic feet of natural gas to $1.4624 per thousand cubic feet, a 58 percent increase.

PSC says in a legal document that people who would be directly affected by the proposed increase and want to be a party in the docket for the PSC’s examination of the request must file a petition to intervene by Aug. 30.

To file, a person must

(1) Submit the petition electronically on the Commission’s website at http://psc.mt.gov by clicking on“Account Login/Registration” under “Electronic Documents” tab;

and (2) physically deliver or mail the original petition to the Commission at the address above. The Commission will not post an e-filed document to its website until it receives the original from the petitioner.

A person petitioning for intervention in this Docket must also serve a hard copy of the petition on the MCC and Havre Pipeline’s counsel, Sarah Norcott, NorthWestern Energy, 200 N. Montana Ave., Suite 205, Helena, Montana 59601.

An interested person that does not wish to formally intervene in this docket may submit written public comments on the matter to the commission at the above address, or by email to [email protected]. A form for making comments may be found at http://psc.mt.gov by clicking on “Comment on Proceedings.”

In June, Judge Yvonne Laird ruled against Havre Pipeline and its parent company, NorthWestern Energy, dismissing a lawsuit saying the PSC overstepped its bounds when it ruled Havre Pipeline could not abandon service to customers on connections known as farm taps without first obtaining permission from the PSC.