Boise News

State of the Statehouse

Energy Policy Creeps Forward in Idaho

By Nathaniel Hoffman, 2-15-07

The only committee in Idaho’s Legislature with an assumed expertise in energy policy rehashed global warming and rising sea levels again Wednesday before putting the kibosh on a bipartisan effort to promote green building technology.

The House Environment, Energy and Technology Committee held a resolution brought by Democrats that encouraged policies to decrease the state’s dependence on fossil fuels and move to clean energy sources.

Among the clean energies noted in the resolution is second generation nuclear power, with the caveat that a safe method of handling waste must also be developed. That nod to nukes wasn’t enough for Rep. Russ Mathews of Idaho Falls, a fan of nuke power who feels that the state’s power needs could be met for 165 years by recycling nuclear waste.

“I have a lot of nucular [sic] scientists that live in my district,” Mathews said.

Committee Chairman Dell Raybould, a Rexburg farmer, repeated claims that Greenland is really cold this year. Rep. Eric Anderson, a Priest Lake Republican asked Democrats to show him the yardstick that has been measuring ocean levels.

This skepticism and politicization of science is just as insidious in Idaho as it is on the national and global scale. I wrote about its local manifestation last week in the Boise Weekly. But since that column ran, a dozen new energy related bills have reared their heads in the capitol.

The energy committee on Wednesday also held the one energy bill that showed most promise, a mandate that state-funded building projects be certified for internationally recognized energy efficiency standards, or have a good reason not to be.

“This is going to be one of the bigger bills of the session in terms of showing state leadership on energy,” said Ken Miller, Idaho’s representative of the Northwest Energy Coalition. “It essentially addresses a key part of the energy plan and the fact that it was held in committee is a little mystifying.”

An interim energy taskforce developed a 94-page energy plan over the summer break that emphasizes energy conservation and renewable resources. A high-profile hearing on the plan is scheduled for Tuesday in the Gold Room on the 4th floor of the Idaho Statehouse.

But the plan has engendered only a handful of energy bills this year.

Part of the problem with this energy plan is it happened just before the session,” said Sen. Kate Kelly, a Boise Democrat who is co-sponsoring an energy bill that she does not expect to get out of committee.

It would empanel a State Energy Facility Planning Committee to create a statewide plan for locating new energy facilities and require a site license from the Department of Environmental Quality.

The siting issue was a major impetus for developing a state energy plan in the first place – the Legislature agreed last year that a coal-fired power plant proposed in Jerome County was a bad idea and put a freeze on development of such plants until the plan was developed.

But the state energy plan takes a light handed approach to siting and recommends a mere advisory team to help counties considering applications for coal or nuclear plants in the future.

Sen. Curt McKenzie, a Canyon County attorney and co-chair of the interim energy committee, said there was consensus in the committee that local control over siting be maintained.

McKenzie is sponsoring a bill to set up the advisory team a move that Kelly called “siting lite”. He also has a Priusful of bills that provide incentives for “biofuels” – ethanol and biodiesel.

The Biofuel infrastructure investment income tax credit, the Biofuel Infrastructure/Fuel Independence Act and the Consumer Choice/Fuel Independence Act all provide tax incentives or grants to promote alternative fuel development in Idaho.

Courtney Washburn, lobbyist for the Idaho Conservation League, said the move to alternative fuels is a positive step, but could impair auto mileage in cars and air quality during summer months.

“The exploration of biofuels is admirable, but we are concerned about some of the unintended environmental consequences,” she said.

Other energy related bills aim to open up state lands for wind production and dump some unclaimed grocery tax money into a low-income energy assistance program.

All the talk about Idaho’s power needs this year have resulted in very little legislation thus far. The question of Idahoans who can’t even afford to heat their homes is a mere footnote to the state energy plan.

“Obviously there is an urgent problem helping low-income Idahoans weatherize their homes and pay their energy bills,” Miller said.

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