by Ken Toole | Nov 9, 2025 | Energy/Utilities, Guest Articles
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.
by Ken Toole | Oct 27, 2025 | Guest Articles, LGBTQ+ Issues, Mayor
Guest Editorial by Allen Lanning
I have been more focused on national and international affairs lately, but this is LGBTQ History Month, so I’m going to weigh in on an issue in the Great Falls mayoral race.
There is a meme circulating on social media about kids looking at a Halloween costume labelled “Homophobic Mayor of Great Falls” which is clearly intended to represent our current Mayor, Cory Reeves. Cory is offended and disappointed, asserting he has never been homophobic, period.
But here’s the deal. Prejudice occurs on a spectrum, or slider, from mild, unconscious biases to intense, hostile attitudes. Prejudice against LGBTQ people is called homophobia. People like Cory consciously or unconsciously push the slider in their mind so that only the most egregious and open conduct qualifies as homophobia to them.
Granted, if you narrowly define homophobia that way, Cory is not homophobic. I believe he would never gratuitously physically attack an LGBTQ person, he would never call someone the “F” word, he would never join in bullying or making crude, hurtful jokes about LGBTQ people or fire someone just because of their sexual orientation.
But his definition of homophobia is too narrow. It’s wrong and misleading. Homophobia at the low end of the spectrum is still homophobia and is still hurtful.
When you take official action as Mayor out of a desire for LGBTQ people to remain invisible in the public eye and the public record, that’s homophobic.
When you change the City’s longstanding policy or practice of issuing proclamations or flying celebratory flags to avoid having to make a Pride Month Declaration or to avoid hanging a Pride flag on public property or to avoid publicly acknowledging the history of oppression and harm LGBTQ people have suffered, that’s homophobic.
When you assert governmental neutrality between oppressed LGBTQ people and the people who would oppress us, that’s homophobic. We see it. We know it for what it is. And we remember it.
I have always had polite communications with Mayor Reeves. He is generally friendly and accessible. I recognize that he has done positive things in his private and his public life. But homophobia doesn’t change its nature because it’s manifested in subtle ways by genteel people. And polite regard for one’s friends and family members who are part of an oppressed group does not excuse actions taken to further that oppression, even small ones.
So yes, if you judge Mayor Cory Reeves by his mayoral actions on LGBTQ issues, he is homophobic, despite his protestations. It’s fair to describe him as mildly homophobic. But it is not truthful or fair to allow him to slide himself out of the label entirely. Obviously, this is but one aspect of this race. But if that is an important issue to you, and it should be, remember that when you vote.
by Ken Toole | Oct 24, 2025 | Guest Articles
Jackie (Mike) Brown over at The Western Word Blog has published his recommendations for the city elections. Enjoy and follow the Western Word.
The MAGAs in Great Falls are spending a lot of time attacking mayoral candidate Jasmine Taylor. Some commentators on social media claim that incumbent Mayor Cory Reeves will have an easy time getting reelected, but with all the attacks, I think Reeves and his supporters might be a little worried.
I would be worried, too, if I had raised taxes, fees, and rates as much as he has in just two years. I don’t think the voters in Great Falls want more of that.
The attacks have intensified, and there are 12 days left until Election Day, which is November 4. The ballots have been mailed, and people are starting to return them. This is crunch time.
Yesterday, I told readers that I would like to see some new faces on the Great Falls City Commission. The current commission is a rubber stamp for the city department heads and the city manager. We need some forward-thinking younger people on the commission.
Therefore, I will support Jasmine Taylor for Mayor, Casey Schreiner for City Commission, and Matt Pipinich for City Commission. I hope you will join me.
by Ken Toole | Oct 18, 2025 | Guest Articles
Despite the fact that coal vs renewable energy has become a flashpoint inTrump’s culture wars, the dye is cast. The future belongs to renewable sources of energy. Politics may slow down the advancement of renewable power but technology and economic realities will continue to drive cleaner, more efficient renewables into the market displacing old, expensive coal.
Guest Post From Tammy Jenkins
Not Enough Bidders For BLM Coal Sale
BLM held a lease sale for 1,262 acres in Big Horn County, Montana that attracted one bid from the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which operates the nearby Spring Creek Mine.
The numbers shaking out from a Montana coal lease sale on Oct. 6. According to AP reporting, the top bid was $186,000 for 167 million tons of coal, penciling out to one-tenth of a dollar per ton. For comparison, the region’s last successful federal sale went for $1.10 per ton of coal.
Had the recent Montana lease gone for a similar rate, it would’ve been about $183 million.
Kendall said that matters, because half of that money is returned to states and local governments for things like public infrastructure and schools.
“I think the big question and the moment of truth will be whether the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) actually accepts the bid,” Kendall said.
BLM Can Only Accept “Fair Market” Bids
The BLM is supposed to only accept “fair market value” bids under those 1976 federal rules protecting taxpayers and public lands. The BLM doesn’t disclose what it deems fair market value, so if it accepts a bid at a significantly lower rate, Kendall said that’s telling.
“I think the concern is that the offices and the systems that were put in place in order to ensure that the public is getting a fair return for taxpayers is under threat,” she said.
The bid of $186,000 for a lease with an estimated 167.5 million tons of recoverable coal equates to less than a penny per ton.
Public land leases for mining and logging have been opened up by the current administration. Most folks in Montana want to keep public lands in public hands.
For more information:
Federal coal lease sales muster low bid in Montana and delay in Wyoming | Wyoming Public Media
by Guest Writer | Oct 10, 2025 | Guest Articles, Mayor
REEFER MADNESS IN GREAT FALLS: By Jackie Brown
I saw another drive-by hit piece from the MAGAs in Cascade County. This time, the hit piece is posted at the E-City Beat blog by Philip M. Faccenda.
The post on the blog shows a photo of Great Falls mayoral candidate Jasmine Taylor, “…holding a half-full weed pipe and lighter…”
The horror! The horror!
The blog did correctly point out that recreational marijuana use is legal in Montana.
It passed with about 57% of the vote in the state. Cascade County approved it with about 55% of the vote. By the way, I voted for it.
Faccenda would like the people holding the next candidate forum to ask drug-related questions so they can try to “get” Taylor.
I would like the City Commission to stop raising my taxes, rates, and fees. The current mayor won’t get my vote because he has supported increasing our taxes, rates, and fees on multiple occasions.
Finally, I leave you with this thought: “Five drunk guys will start a fight. Five stoned guys will start a band.”
Party on…
Thank you to The Western Word Blog. If you are not already following, check it out:
https://thewesternword.com/
by Ken Toole | Jul 23, 2025 | Guest Articles
Guest Editorial from Anne Hedges, Director of the Montana Environmental Information Center
You can’t take your bird dog hunting on lands being mined or filled with oil rigs, even if they are “public” lands.
While Montanans were right to celebrate removing the sale of public lands from the recent Congressional budget bill, some may not know that our representatives still voted to put millions of acres of public lands on the chopping block. Selling public lands was just one of a dozen different ways that the billionaires’ budget bill privatized our public lands. Just try big game hunting, bird-watching, camping, hiking, or biking on public lands mined or fracked for corporate profit, and see how quickly you’re escorted away.
This is the bait-and-switch our elected representatives pulled on Montanans.
They crowed about removing provisions requiring the sale of public lands, but the new law mandates quarterly oil and gas lease sales on public lands, regardless of whether it makes economic sense. It slashes royalty rates, guaranteeing that the public does not receive the compensation it is due for public resources. It lets industry decide which land needs to be offered for oil and gas leasing – regardless of who else uses that land and for what purpose. It increases the duration of drilling permits so that companies can retain leases and tie up public lands for longer periods of time. And, appallingly, it reinstates the practice of allowing noncompetitive leases on public lands, ensuring that the public will not receive the true value of the public resources that are being given up.
But it gets worse. We know that coal mining has devastated huge swaths of public lands and waters that agricultural users depend on. However, instead of helping communities transition away from expensive, dirty coal towards cleaner energy, it incentivizes even more coal mining on public lands and slashes royalty payments for mining corporations. It expedites new coal leases and mining permits on public lands, even though coal mining is at historic lows and projected to continue declining. For example, the bill allows the notoriously corrupt Signal Peak mining company to mine more than 50 million tons of coal without consideration for the surface landowners whose water has been lost due to the mine’s operations.
And finally, the bill mandates the opening of four million acres of federal land to coal mining, without providing details about where those lands are, what resources they hold, or what the impacts may be.
In short, it’s a fire sale, thanks to our bait-and-switch congressional delegation. If they repeat the tired trope that they are trying to increase jobs or support “all-of-the-above energy,” I say hogwash. If that was true, they wouldn’t have gutted incentives that help create thousands of good-paying solar and wind jobs in Montana and across the country. And while our congressmen hide behind press releases hyping this new law, keep in mind that it will result in not only lost and destroyed public lands, but higher energy bills, increased wildfires, increased drought, more flash floods, and more intense heat waves.
A changing climate isn’t a conspiracy theory or a partisan issue; it’s a fact that we can and need to deal with. Heat waves are worsening, extreme weather is killing more people, and drought is reducing rivers such as the Dearborn to a trickle in June. This bill will set us back decades, so remember who to thank for making those problems worse now and in the future.
Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy and Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing, you’ve given us higher deficits, less public land, lower revenues, higher electric bills and more heat, wildfire and drought. You have jeopardized our public lands and our future for your rich friends’ profits.
We are definitely less safe thanks to you.
