Gail Gutsche explains that she is running for the Public Service Commission because “this is a really critical time for a change in the energy future of Montana.”

She said she will work to help find solutions to the dramatic price increases consumers have seen since the Montana legislature deregulated electricity.

But her vision goes well beyond that.

“We need to think about how we’re going to do energy in the future and clearly it’s going to be in a carbon-constrained world--Congress is going to set carbon standards,” she said. “I want to help create jobs for Montanans, and help shield them from the expected dramatic increases in fossil-fuel-based electricity. Montana has the opportunity to bring back fair and reasonable utility rates, but we can’t do it by maintaining the status quo.”

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HELENA — Former state Rep. Gail Gutsche, a Missoula Democrat, said this week she’s running for the Public Service Commission seat held by Republican Commissioner Doug Mood.

Gutsche, 53, said she’d be an advocate for energy conservation and development of more “renewable” power resources, such as wind power.

“Montana has the opportunity to bring back fair and reasonable utility rates, but we cannot do so by maintaining the status quo,” she said. “Cleaner, greener, leaner energy is possible, available and necessary.”

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Folks had money on their minds at the Missoula City Council’s regular meeting - money for a city power bill, for those pesky fire hydrants and for the 2008 budget approved Monday.

Current and former lawmakers and advocates showed up to tell council members to back away from a plan to buy electricity from Electric City Power, a Great Falls not-for-profit building a coal-fired plant outside that city.

“I think it’s a risky venture,” said former Rep. Gail Gutsche, D-Missoula.

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