Rim Rock Rolling While Waiting On The MATL

A small victory for the Canadian owned Enbridge, Inc. yesterday in the announcement by the media regarding construction and financing of the Rim Rock wind farm in northwestern Montana needing all the help it can get.

Enbridge, is the company that took over the Montana Alberta Tie Limited (MATL) transmission line that will eventually stretch from Great Falls into Canada. The transmission line is reported to be a requirement for the 309MW 189MW Rim Rock Wind Farm and is currently caught up in litigation with Montana land owners.

All of this timing is quite interesting as an announcement is expected any minute by Montana Sixth Judicial District Judge Nels Swandal out of Livingston on a widely reported eminent domain case involving the MATL transmission line. (background)


*** Update 1/11/12 3:40PM ***
Judge Swandal rules HB 198 is Constitutional ...

*** End Update 1/11/12 3:40PM ***

*** Update 1/11/12 4:30PM ***
More on the HB198 portion of the eminent domain decision here.
*** End Update 1/11/12 4:30PM


Of course, those that have been paying attention know that last October the Minneapolis based Mortenson Construction was already working on the Rim Rock project ...

NatureEner Wind Farm project a go; construction underway Oct 12, 2011


Two days ago, on Monday, Mortenson officially announced the deal and yesterday saw a barrage of press releases and media articles announcing a $320M deal with Morgan Stanley to complete the project.

See here, here, here, here, etc.
'The proposed wind farm would include over 121.5 megawatt turbines and ....' (huh?)


As most readers know, the renewable energy credits for the Rim Rock project will go to southern California utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) while the electricity will head north to Canada. The project was touted at length to be a $800M 300MW project, as recently as January 1, 2012, even though the NaturEner web site has listed the project to be 189MW for many months.


Enbridge, Inc must take the victories when it can as it is currently involved in its own land and pipeline problems in Canada and the U.S. ...

Should the Northern Gateway oil pipeline be approved? Jan 10, 2012

Enbridge reports leak from U.S. pipeline as Northern Gateway hearings begin Jan 10, 2012