The Montana Public Service Commission is Working to Keep Down Energy Costs

This week on Dominick In The Morning, I spoke with Roger Koopman who is on the Montana Public Service Commission. Commissioner Koopman talked about dealing with power companies and trying to make sure the consumer (you and me) don't pay too much each month.

He talked about regulating these companies and explained because they were a monopoly, the state had to balance what's good for the company and what's good for the consumer.

One of the changes Commissioner Koopman explained was cutting the term of the contracts with energy companies from 25 to 10 years. This will help the consumer, he suggested, because it's very hard to predict energy costs 25 years in the future.

If energy prices go down, the people of Montana might have been locked in paying higher prices for the next 25 years.

Also today, the Montana Public Service Commission voted to keep a program that will help conserve natural gas. It is done by providing energy audits plus giving out incentives for people to get thermostats that can be programmed to not use power when no one is home. Wasting energy is something we need to be aware of. Turn off your heat and air conditioning when you leave for work and then program your heat and air conditioning to go on about an half hour before you return home. Why waste energy when no one is home?