Algonquin’s utility purchase devastates city’s legal argument
“Missoula Mayor John Engen seemed confident at his recent press conference. He insisted that despite the purchase of Mountain Water Co. by Algonquin Power and Utilities Corp., nothing is changed. But I bet behind closed doors he is very worried. Because this changes everything.
Algonquin has long experience and deep expertise in running utilities. It has made credible long-term investments in its companies, and ties its own profitability to the future prosperity of the communities in which it operates. Focusing on the “long view” characterizes successful utility companies, and is plainly central to Algonquin’s business model. This spells trouble for Engen’s lawsuit.
To win condemnation, the city must first prove its ownership of Mountain Water is “more necessary” to the public’s interest than private ownership. In the city’s failed eminent domain lawsuit in the 1980s, the city argued, as it does now, that a privately owned company cannot be relied upon to supply municipal water. The courts, however, found that there was “no evidence which showed that the citizens’ long-range access to supplies of water would be endangered” by continued private ownership. Rather, “the citizens’ long-range access to water was assured.”
The city’s lawsuit against the Carlyle Group makes three principal arguments for how “conditions have changed” since the 1980s, and so a second lawsuit should succeed where the first one failed.”
Rhoades, Quentin. Missoulian 7 October 2014.