Montana Tribes Celebrate Purchase of Hydroelectric Dam
Populist GOP state senator upset.
A Montana state senator failed to persuade a federal judge that a hydroelectric dam should not be transferred to Native American tribes because of their ties to the Turkish government and fear of a terrorist attack.
State Sen. Bob Keenan sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to try to stop the transfer of the Kerr Dam to a coalition of Native American tribes.
Judge Contreras called the arguments about the Turkish government “somewhat perplexing.”
“To the extent such injuries are cognizable, nowhere are those allegations substantiated in the record,” Contreras wrote. “Indeed, at hearing, counsel for plaintiffs conceded that no such evidence has been submitted relating to the plaintiffs’ alleged economic harm.” In his Sept. 2 lawsuit in District of Columbia Federal Court, Keenan pointed out that transferring control of the dam on the Flathead River, near the Flathead Reservation, would be “the first-ever major hydropower facility/license conveyance to a Native American tribal government to take place since the events of September 11, 2001.”Keenan, a Republican, obviously was unhappy with the tribes and with FERC. He accused FERC of “systemic abuse,” arbitrary and capricious friendliness to the tribes, and “perpetrat(ing)” a “grand deception” upon Montana by mismanaging the dam.
More: Courthouse News Service