[MCN] THIS THURSDAY: COLSTRIP ON TRIAL IN MISSOULA

[Jeffrey J. Smith]

The courtroom promises to be full on *Thursday, February 20, at 1:30 p.m.
at the Missoula Federal Courthouse*, 201 East Broadway, when Dana
Christensen, Chief United States District Judge of the United States
District Court for the District of Montana, hears argument on whether to
allow NorthWestern Energy's stockholders a vote on a resolution pushing
Montana’s monopoly utility away from its purchase of the Colstrip-4
coal-fired generator and toward renewable energy.


Please join 350 Montana to fill the 80 seats in the courtroom.



Ovando resident Tom Tosdal has written a resolution to the company's
stockholders, but since October, NorthWestern Energy has hired three
different sets of lawyers to prevent stockholders from seeing the
resolution. NorthWestern Energy is afraid of this:



*“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED* the shareholders request Northwestern
Corporation plan for the Northwestern Energy Company to cease coal fired
generation of electricity from the Colstrip plant and replace that
electricity with non-carbon emitting renewable energy and 21st century
storage technologies with its own assets or from the market no later than
the end of the year 2025, and to share that plan with the shareholders no
later than the 2021 annual meeting.”



Tosdal has gone toe-to-toe with the company, filing the resolution last
September, meeting all the company’s byzantine requirements, and submitting
his final brief at the beginning of February. Now he gets to square off in
court to settle it once and for all.



Here’s David McComber’s article in *The Montana Standard* that lays out the
stakes:



https://mtstandard.com/news/local/shareholder-s-request-to-northwestern-energy-turns-into-a-climate/article_3ffe1702-ad48-5260-b04a-c4bf21d8f907.html



You can read the whole resolution here:



http://www.350montana.org/2019/12/09/nwe-stockholder-proposal/
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