Last Wednesday Mission Valley Power’s General Manager Jean Matt addressed the Lake County Republican Women’s Club. During the presentation, Matt answered many questions regarding Mission Valley Power and addressed rumors that are circulating about the price of electricity going up.

Matt started off the meeting by addressing how Mission Valley Power operates.

The company is one of three federally owned companies in the United States. A 93-638 contract allows the CSKT to operate the company, but the Tribes do not own the company. The company itself answers to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who answers to the Department of the Interior. Mission Valley Power is also a non-profit organization. The company brought in $27,363,652 in the 2015 fiscal year, and had $27,351,229 in expenditures, which meant they came out $12,423 ahead. According to Matt, that extra money goes into an emergency fund.

Another important fact that the general public may not realize is that only 19 percent of the energy Mission Valley Power buys is from the CSKT Dam. Eighty percent comes from Bonneville Power, and one percent comes from a hydroelectric generation plant.

There has been speculation that since the CSKT Tribes have taken over the dam, rates will increase. Right now, MVP has the second lowest rates in the state of Montana. Matt made it clear that the dam and MVP are not the same thing. Energy Keepers is a tribally owned company that runs the dam. They do not run the power company, and the company does not have anything to do with the dam. “We don’t generate power,” Matt said.

Matt said rates will not increase due to the Tribes taking over the dam.

When rate changes are propsed, three boards are consulted. Each board must then pass the desired changes before they can take affect.

According to the 2015 annual report, five members are appointed for three year terms to the Utility Board by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council The Board and General Manager recommend major changes to the Tribal Council, who review and present those recommendations to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for final approval. The Consumer Council consists of seven members who must live within MVP’s service area. Two members represent Lake County, one represents Sanders County, one represents Missoula County, and three are ‘members at large.’ The Consumer Council serves as a liaison between customers and utility staff regarding either complaints or praise.

They also provide feedback to the Utility Board prior to establishing new or changed procedures or policies that affect customers, as well as rate changes. It is not required that a member of the board is a tribal member.

A question was raised regarding a circulating rumor about tribal members paying less for utilites after the ownership of Kerr Dam changed over to the Tribe. “We have seven different rate levels. Whether you are black, brown, blue, green, whatever you ethnicity, it’s all the same for everybody,” Matt said.

Just because the Tribes own the dam doesn’t mean that tribal members – myself, I don’t get any more money, I don’t get any discounts. As a federally owned utility, I’m not allowed to disseminate and treat people different. Everybody is the same. There is nobody that gets anything different.”

For more inforation about how Mission Valey Power operates and statistics about the company, pick up their annual report.