U.S. Supreme Court rules against State of Montana in riverbed case

U.S. Supreme Court rules against State of Montana in riverbed case

www.kxlh.com

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on Wednesday in favor of PPL Montana in a dispute with the State of Montana over who owns the riverbeds underneath dams on three Montana rivers.

The Montana Supreme Court had earlier ruled that PPL must pay the state $40 million in back rent for using the rivers to operate hydroelectric dams.

In its decision, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Montana justices, stating the the Montana Supreme Court was wrong to conclude that the state owns the riverbeds.As the litigation history of this case shows, Montana filed its claim for riverbed rent over a c

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im just now hearing about this but i guess it has been going on for a few years now and just now coming to a close .
basically the issue seems to hinge on the state of Montana's view of navigable waters vs the supreme cour,t as montana supreme court ruled in favor of the state of montana where as the feds have reversed the decision.

it seems montana has the support of 27 other states in the matter and wishes to charge the government 100ish years back rent on river bed's that have to deal with hydroelectric power plants where as PPL does not think it owes such money

the main point of contention is that Montana argues that because lewis and clark had to carry their boats over the falls that the river in question is non navigable by Montana standards where as PPL and the state and fed seems to think it is. this quote from my main source should explain it a bit better

Text"David Hoffman, PPL Montana director of external affairs, says that PPL has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the Clark Fork, Missouri and Madison Rivers were not navigable at the time of statehood and therefore should not be managed by the state. "At the time Lewis and Clark attempted to navigate the Missouri River that is where their navigation ended at least at the point of the Great Falls because they spent nearly 30 days carrying boats around those falls," Hoffman says. However, the state and Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock will argue the rivers were navigable and the state has every right to the rivers."

source for above quote www.kxlh.com...
www.kxlh.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

www.prnewswire.com...
finance.minyanville.com...
www.abajournal.com...

few more links
www.eenews.net...