An interim state legislative committee on Wednesday rejected a draft bill sponsored by Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, that would have given Idaho greater say over the siting of a coal-fired power plant proposed for Jerome County.
The decision means the three-member Jerome County Commission still retains the final say on whether to approve the plant, as long as California-based power plant developer Sempra Generation receives the necessary Idaho Department of Environmental Quality permits and a transfer of water rights. In May, the company proposed to build a $1 billion, 600-megawatt power plant on a site nine miles northeast of the city of Jerome.
Stennett said the 13-member commission split along party lines in the decision to reject the draft bill.
The three democrats on the committee—Stennett, Sen. Elliot Werk, of Boise, and Rep. Elaine Smith, of Pocatello—all voted against the motion.
Republicans based their votes on the mantra that less regulation is better, Stennett said.
"They brought that into the argument," he said.
Stennett's proposed bill would have formed a statewide siting authority—to include members of Idaho Fish and Game, DEQ, Idaho Public Utilities Commission and the state Department of Agriculture—that he said could have helped guide a more stringent siting process.
The real issue, Stennett said, is that Idaho resources would be utilized and possibly harmed by an out-of-state company for its own benefit. Power from the proposed plant would go to the West Coast, he said.
"We get the pollution and they get the benefits," he said. "I fail to see the benefit in that."
Jerome County commissioners have a built-in inducement to approve the power plant, Stennett said, in the form of an estimated $15 million in yearly tax benefits to the county.
The benefits to Jerome County do not outweigh the potentially negative impacts of widespread pollution in Southern Idaho, Stennett said.
"As far as I'm concerned, it affects all of Idaho," he said.
Stennett said Idaho is the only Western state and one of only two states in the entire U.S. that is without a coal-fired power plant within its borders.
"I'd like to continue to see that," he said.
Idaho is also one of only two Western states, the other being Wyoming, that doesn't have a statewide siting authority for such power plants, Stennett said.
"Idaho is in the Dark Ages on this because we haven't faced this kind of decision," Stennett said.
The Ketchum Democrat, who is the Senate minority leader, said the general public needs to know more about the proposed coal-fired power plant.
"I haven't talked to anyone that supports it," he said.
Playing by the rules and bringing his bill before the committee hasn't produced the results he desires, Stennett said. Still, he expresses optimism.
"I'm not going to give up on it," he said.
