ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy (the world's largest coal company) announced this week they will collaborate on a "major commercial scale coal to gas facility" in Kentucky.  The Kentucky project is projected to provide 500 high wage jobs.

What's most interesting about their joint press release was this quote from Peabody President Rick Bowen: "We appreciate the effort by Kentucky's elected officials and regulatory bodies in pulling together the balanced legislation and follow on agreements to attract investments and help us with this important decision."

During the last legislative session, legislative Democrats opposed legislation that would have made Montana more attractive to coal development, like HB 610, sponsored by Democrat Rep. Jim Keane, which would have reduced the number of lawsuits stemming from the siting process - HB 610 died on a party-line vote in the Senate with all but one Democrat voting against it.

So as other states are making strides at working with energy developers, Montana persists in talking big and getting zero results.  Yet to hear Gov. Schweitzer talk, he's the nation's biggest promoter of this type of clean coal technology.  When are we going to see something happen?  The answer is never as long as this guy's in office.

The Montana Department of Revenue put out a press release yesterday that indicates a new tax on Internet access is in the works and could be enacted without legislation.

There has been a federal moratorium on Internet taxation for a number of years, but that moratorium is due to expire on November 1.  Revenue Director Dan Bucks made it clear in the press release that Montana will not begin taxing Internet access on November 1 because he wants to wait to see if Congress renews the moratorium.  "He said it would be unwise for the department to use resources to collect a tax that may need to be refunded at a later date."

However, the release went on to reveal that if Congress adjourns next year without extending the Internet taxation moratorium, Bucks will order the Montana telecommunications excise tax be applied to Internet access.

The worst part of this is that Schweitzer can institute this new tax without legislative approval.  He's done this before - last year he increased taxes on cell phones, which legislative Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to reverse.

Not only is this is slap in the face of the democratic process,  but it's totally unnecessary at this time of record revenue surpluses.  The state has more money than it can spend and we're going to put new taxes on important things like the Internet?  What's wrong with this administration?

Democrats had high hopes for congressional challenger Bill Kennedy.  In his first fundraising quarter, Kennedy nearly matched Denny Rehberg in money raised - $115,000 to $120,000, respectively.  But it looks like Kennedy's money train has jumped the tracks.  His October quarterly report was released today and shows an anemic $64,000 raised.  By comparison, that's even less than Monica Lindeen raised in the same period two years ago.

Rehberg's most-recent numbers have not yet been released, but should be available in the next couple of days.

The Montana Republican Party had an interesting item today about Bill Kennedy.  You probably won't get to read this in the papers tomorrow, so we've filtered it down to the good parts:

"Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy today skipped an important 10 a.m. meeting of the Yellowstone County Commissioners in Billings in favor of appearing at his own political press conference at 11 a.m. in Helena."

"'Bill Kennedy’s endless political ambition is starting to get the best of him, and unfortunately it seems the citizens of Yellowstone County are the ones paying the price,” said Montana Republican Party Executive Director Chris Wilcox. “Montanans deserve public servants who will do their jobs in an up front and honorable fashion, not someone who is just waiting for the next opportunity for self-promotion and partisan attacks.'"

"Kennedy launched a rambling, baseless attack against Montana’s Congressman Denny Rehberg on SCHIP – the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which Congressman Rehberg has consistently supported for years. Contrary to Mr. Kennedy’s claims, Rehberg never 'voted against SCHIP' nor did he call SCHIP 'extremist political ideology'. What Rehberg did do was vote against the Nancy Pelosi/Bill Kennedy plan which would have given SCHIP benefits to illegal aliens, would have enrolled adults in SCHIP at the expense of needy kids, and it would have cut Medicare programs used by thousands of Montana seniors. In fact, the Nancy Pelosi/Bill Kennedy plan was so extreme that it was rejected by Montana Democrat Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester, the U.S. Senate and a joint Senate-House Conference Committee."

"'It's tells folks a lot about Bill Kennedy that his first real act as a candidate was to neglect his duties as County Commissioner in order to launch a false political attack. Montanans rightly expect better of their candidates for Congress. Bill Kennedy cannot continue to shortchange the taxpayers in Yellowstone County by neglecting his duties in an effort to quench his insatiable appetite for political office,' said Wilcox."

"The plan that was ultimately passed by Congress and sent to the President is the same plan Rehberg said he would support in an op-ed widely distributed in Montana in August. Rehberg said in August that the Senate bill was better than the Pelosi/Kennedy plan. Rehberg kept his word to the people of Montana when he voted for the compromise SCHIP bill in September."

"'If Bill Kennedy wants to be a Hillary Clinton clone when it comes to health-care that’s up to him,' said Wilcox. 'Congressman Rehberg will continue to work with both Democrats and Republicans to see that the centrist-compromise SCHIP bill that Denny has long supported is signed into law.'"