High court rules for power company over Montana dams

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with a power company Wednesday in a dispute with Montana over who owns the riverbeds beneath 10 dams sitting on three Montana rivers.

In a case that reached back to the travels of Lewis and Clark more than 200 years ago, the court voted unanimously to throw out a state court ruling that could have cost the company, PPL Montana, more than $50 million.

The power company had appealed a Montana Supreme Court ruling that the state owns the submerged land beneath the dams on the Missouri, Clark Fork and Madison rivers, and that PPL owes back rent and interes...