This week our topics from the 2017 Montana Legislature are: coal and prohibiting state courts from considering foreign laws.
Guests: Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, and Sen. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell.
Ankney, a retired coal miner, is known for his advocacy of coal and working to keep families who depend on coal mining or the coal-fired power plants in Colstrip in the southeastern Montana community. That future of Colstrip is uncertain as the out-of owners of Colstrip Units 1 & 2 have announced plans to shutter the plants under a settlement reached with environmentalists who sued over emission violations.
Regier, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 97 which would prohibit the application of foreign law in state courts. During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee both opponents and proponents called referred to SB 97 as the "Sharia Law Bill." The bill now faces a hearing in the House.
(MUSIC bed: Steely Dan “Do It Again” A Decade of Steely Dan Re-mastered, Jan 1, 1985 UMG Recordings, Inc.)
The Capitol Connections theme music is courtesy of the Alex Nauman Trio.
Capitol Connections is a production of YPR news.
