A tidal wave of opposition may be turning the tide against a coal-fired power plant proposed for south-central Idaho, and others like it.
Following a packed public hearing at the Statehouse Monday, March 27, the Senate State Affairs Committee sent a two-year power plant moratorium bill to the Senate floor.
The bill, labeled House Bill 791, was introduced by House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, and co-sponsored by Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, and Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum.
"We really don't know what a coal-fired power plant is going to do," Newcomb said.
The bill passed the House on March 21 by a vote of 64-5.
The Senate has to pass it and the governor has to sign it before it becomes law.
The legislation would place a two-year moratorium on permits, licenses or construction of certain coal-fired power plants, like the one proposed by San Diego-based Sempra Generation for Jerome County.
Sen. Edgar J. Malepeai, D-Pocatello, made a substitute motion to include coal gasification plants in the moratorium, but the motion failed to be seconded.
Newcomb said a facility such as Sempra's is a merchant power plant, meaning it can sell its power to the highest bidder—not necessarily in Idaho.
"Are we as Idahoans willing to give up our ... resources for the West Coast?" Stennett asked. "The Speaker (of the House) alluded to this—we would have a civil war on our hands if we were to build a pipe and pump water from Jerome to Las Vegas."
Water was the reason given by a few committee members for supporting the bill.
"It comes down to the issue of water," said Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls.
Sending water in the form of electricity to another state while being asked to consider voting on an aquifer recharge bill also making its way through the Legislature didn't add up, he said.
Other senators, however, took issue with singling out one type of industry.
"I think we're driving them away," said Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa. "I don't think this is a good way to treat businesses in Idaho and I worry about the constitutionality of it."
Among the nearly 80 people attending the hearing was Gale Kleinkopf, a College of Southern Idaho research professor and a former Twin Falls mayor.
He testified that arsenic pollution from a coal-fired power plant is a major concern for Twin Falls, which is already having problems meeting the new federal rules regarding arsenic.
"Twin Falls gets almost 80 percent of its drinking water from the aquifer," he said. "The potential for arsenic to leach is very strong."
Hugh Feiss, a Benedictine monk from the Monastery of the Ascension in Jerome, invoked different reasons for opposing such power plants.
"I'd like to raise a few moral perspectives," he said. "Industrial enterprises disproportionately affect the poor."
If saying no to coal generation facilities means paying a little more for electricity or curtailing our energy use, he said, it's a sacrifice worth making.
"I don't believe we own the land," he added. "We're stewards of the earth."
In an attempt to sway an eastern Idaho lawmaker, former Gov. John Evans, of Burley, said coal gasification—a coal burning process that advocates say emits far less pollutants into the air—could be an alternative for Idaho, particularly Soda Springs because of its rail-line access and proximity to coal fields.
Sens. Robert L. Geddes, R-Soda Springs, and McKenzie voted against sending the bill to the floor.
"I have some concerns about the message a moratorium sends," Geddes said. "My district would love to have a facility of this type. I don't think this is old technology. I think there has been a lot of effort to misconstrue the facts."
Sempra officials have said the company would likely abandon its Jerome County project if the state passes legislation to hinder the construction of coal-fired power plants.
"We think the moratorium is bad policy," Art Larson, a Sempra spokesman, said Tuesday. "Should it pass, it would have a significant impact on the future of our project. The bill would surely limit the state's options in meeting (Idaho's) energy needs."
Stennett, though, had a different view.
"The people have spoken on this issue," he said. "We've all received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails. It's one of the most remarkable things I've seen as far as grassroots movements in Idaho."
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Related Resolution
The Idaho Senate is debating this week House Concurrent Resolution 62, which calls for a state energy plan.
This summer's Interim Committee on Energy, Environment and Technology would develop an integrated energy plan that provides for the state's power generation needs.
The resolution passed the House March 21 with a vote of 67-1.
