The Montana CFAC aluminum plant – ‘Glencore Has Been Playing Us’

On March 1, Reuters unveiled a report that Swiss commodities giant Glencore supplied thousands of tons of alumina to a firm linked to Iran’s nuclear program, the most recent eye-catching headline in the company’s controversy-riddled history. Four days later, Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency about a Glencore concern much closer to home: Columbia Falls Aluminum Company.

Glencore, the largest commodities trading group in the world, has owned the CFAC aluminum plant located along the Flathead River since 1999. Citing high electricity rates and aluminum market conditions, the company closed the facility in 2009. Since then, Tester and Baucus have tried to negotiate a power agreement with Bonneville Power Administration and Glencore to restart the plant.

By Myers Reece

Full Story: http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/glencore_has_been_playing_us/32429/