Guest Editorial By Mary Moe
Ordinarily I‘d say, ”You can‘t make this stuff up.“ But with Montana‘s Public Service Commission, over-the-topness — and making stuff up — has become de rigeur.
Remember the Koopman controversy five years ago? “Someone” at the PSC acquired Commissioner Roger Koopman’s work emails, among which were personal communications with his family, and leaked them to a right-wing news website. Koopman sued the PSC for $2.2 million for defaming him and invading his family’s privacy.
Why was Koopman using a public email account for personal communications? Nobody asked.
And who leaked the emails? Ah, the bobbing and weaving. Although the website publisher embraced Montanans’ right to know when it came to posting the emails, he eschewed our right to know who leaked them
The records request suggested Commissioner Randy Pinocci was the leaker, but apparently his cell phone suffered a crickets infestation. And when PSC Chairman Brad Johnson was asked why he signed the request, he said “someone” must have used his stamp. Sheesh.
Ultimately, the PSC and Koopman settled the claim out of court for $155,000. Your taxes and mine picked up the tab.
In 2023, Commissioner Pinocci was back in the headlines. After an altercation with a renter’s brother, Pinocci was charged with disorderly conduct — specifically, challenging to fight or fighting the brother by getting in his face, bumping chests, and yelling.
Pinocci’s defense? He’s too chubby to chest-bump. Criminy
And this year, the Molnar melodrama. Having served on the PSC earlier in the century, Brad Molnar seemed like a good choice for chairman upon re-election. Minds and hearts changed quickly. In July, he himself announced that the PSC was investigating him for professional misconduct.
His response? If you don‘t like me, don‘t re-elect me. “[People] knew what they were getting when they got me … a redneck from Laurel that’ll stand up and fight back.”
Had he sexually harassed Commissioner Annie Bukacek? A reporter asked. “My wife is a hottie,” he responded, displaying her photograph. “I don’t know why I would.” Egad.
And now, what we hope is rock bottom: redneck retribution. Ousted from leadership last week, Molnar is fighting back. He filed an ethics complaint against Bukacek, who kept her job as a physician when she assumed her job as a commissioner. Molnar alleges she’s using PSC office equipment to do that medical work. And he can prove it: He’s amassed a ream’s worth of her documents from the PSC trash.
“I’m not a dumpster diver,” he claims. All appearances are to the contrary.
If this were “The Real Housewives of the PSC” or “The Amazing Disgrace,” we might be amused, if not enthralled, by getting to watch this series without subscribing to Pluto TV Reality. But these pension-padders run a government agency promising Montanans “continued access to utility services that are affordable, reliable, and sustainable for the long-term [sic].” That access has never been more imperiled.
Commissioners, you should be ensuring our investments in clean energy keep us on the path toward low-cost, renewable, and sustainable power. You’re not. While you sneak in and out of copy rooms and email servers and trash bins, NorthWestern Energy’s investments in renewable energy are steadily declining.
You should be ensuring that NWE makes sound investments, both monetarily and environmentally. You’re not. While you chest-bump and -thump, our utility monopoly has built a methane-fired power plant with alarming cost overruns and is throwing good money after bad at the nation’s dirtiest coal plant.
You should be protecting us from a monopoly more interested in increasing corporate profits than decreasing our utility costs. You’re not. You approved a 28% electricity rate increase last year, and should be battling an additional 26% increase this year instead of collecting ammo on one another.
You should be protecting us from further risky ventures — like investing in data centers that will wreak havoc on our water supply, our power grid, and our rates. You’re not. Let me guess your excuse: Having a hottie for a spouse is too distracting?
Enough spy vs. spy. Do the job we elected you to do … and ONLY that job.
Mary Moe is an educator, former Montana Legislator and former City Commissioner in Great Falls. Her editorials appear regularly in Lee Papers.
If the PSC is our only defense against the construction of an horrific data center here in Great Falls, I’m afraid we’re screwed! Our idiot local politicos are endlessly cheerleading the data center as “economic development.” But they forget that economic development has to make economic sense……..for everyone! And a data center only benefits the billionaire oligarchs backing these things, but we get the distinct “privilege” of SUBSIDIZING these monstrosities. And we already are with the current rate increases.
The data center will use MORE electric than is currently produced in all of Montana. So, how will that work? Easy. The consumers, you and me, will have to PAY to produce the necessary production capacity and requisite infrastructure, all to lessen the burden on the billionaire oligarchs whom our local idiots take such pity on. I think most folks don’t understand what’s coming. Data center sounds so innocuous. How can data be a bad thing? They simply don’t understand that these things are an environmental nightmare that consume huge amounts of water and all of our electricity. By the time they understand, it will be too late. That commie rag Bloomberg News just published that electric utility rates rise the the average 267% in the areas surrounding data centers. How in the hell is that considered to be economic developments? Many people In Virginia have seen their rates go from $125 a month to $300 to $400 a month! How many folks in GF can afford that?
I think folks would be rioting in the streets if the new what these bastards are doing to us. Problem is, once their in, there’s nothing you can do about it except hold the perps who allowed this accountable
This guy does a great job describing AI. Everyone in GF should be required to watch this before it’s too late. And the comment section if full of similar stories from throughout the country. We really are on the verge of another dereg type scandal except a thousand times worse! How can our pathetic local yokel elected jagoffs justify this atrocity? Anyone? Anyone? Bret Doney?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roX4jMoyTL4
As I was reading one of my favorite Montana history books, The Rape of the Great Plains by K. Ross Toole, about the unfettered corporate domination and destruction of our state and theft of its resources, there was one line in the book that really resonated with me because it seemed to summarize our situation. We Montanans seem to endlessly fall for the blandishments of corporate propaganda and greed. In other words, we get screwed every time without seeming to learn. Dereg? Oh sure, why not? Heap leach gold mines? What could go wrong? Propping up the dying coal industry? Great idea!
But these data centers have the potential to be a game changer. They could be the nail in the coffin for our beautiful state. Hence, Toole’s words from 76’ are more relevant today than ever. And I think our local morons still don’t get it.
“It remains incredible, however, that in so many instances there is no correlation between the mortality of a bad idea and the weight of the mass of the evidence against it.” p.159
If ever the weight of the mass was against it, these data centers are it! Damn how I wish our elected leaders were smart enough to figure it out. The evidence is all over out there. I guess it’s up to us to educate them. Otherwise the costs will be devastating.
I love this post. Well said, woman! Well said.
Instead creating an environment supportive of small- to medium-sized local businesses, our development geniuses keep trying to catch the gold ring of the biggest entity that can snag. Invariably, these large businesses come with costs. They ask for rebates or special deals, they protest their property taxes which torpedoes the school system’s budget, they create “incidents” that our police and fire must respond to, or they mess with the river in one way or another. In the worst cases, they leave behind a toxic legacy of superfund sites. Enough of that kind of growth. We need to support our own home-grown local businesses. They are the backbone of this beautiful community. We need clean energy and responsible water use.
Maybe Bret Donkey should get his head out of his ass and smell the roses! AI is a giant scam, but our local jaggoffs are too stupid to figure it out!
https://crooksandliars.com/2025/11/peter-thiel-dumps-ai-stock-sparking-fears
One final note. These data centers are insidious. They will put them wherever people are desperate and stupid, which describes our local powers that be perfectly. We may have dodged a bullet here in GF, but with our current useless PSC and Northwestern Energy hell bent on building these disasters somewhere in the state, we’re still gonna get hosed real good on our electric rates. It’s an all out attack on the entire country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5fsLN69Erg