When Sempra Generation began its permitting process in Jerome County in 2005 for a coal-fired power plant, many residents of neighboring counties cried foul because the siting decision was ultimately in the hands of three county commissioners.
Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, proposed siting bills in the last two legislative sessions, which, if passed, would have required a committee of state agency representatives to help in power plant location decisions.
Neither bill got very far.
The topic was discussed during the summer and fall in meetings of the Energy, Environment and Technology Interim Committee.
The committee is charged with formulating a draft energy plan for Idaho.
"(Committee members) have really been striving to reach consensus," said Arne Olson, a senior consultant with San Francisco-based Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. "They got there on most topics. Siting was not one."
The siting recommendation in the draft energy plan provides for state agency personnel to be available to counties or cities at the request of local officials to help with their decision, Olson said. But it would remain voluntary.
"All the decisions would be made at the local level," he said. "It doesn't envision a state process like Oregon, Washington and California have."
Keeping that local government authority is of paramount importance, said Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, interim committee co-chair.
"The recommendation that finally came out was to preserve local government's jurisdiction but give them the ability to call upon the state ... to help them with their decision," Eskridge said. "In my mind, I would think it would be a resource a local jurisdiction would want to use because of the ability to make a better decision."
The Energy Facility Site Advisory Team would be composed of members appointed by the departments of Environmental Quality, Water Resources, Commerce, Health and Welfare, Fish and Game, and Agriculture.
"There's a pretty strong feeling among the majority (in the committee) to leave the decision at the local level. A vocal minority would have it be done at a state level," Olson said.
Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, is one of those in the minority who feels the voluntary system isn't enough.
"I think it should be compulsory, and the county should have to respond to findings by the advisory team," Jaquet said. "But that's the best we were able to come up with for siting."
Leslie Bradshaw, president of Blaine County Citizens for Clean Energy, worries that without mandatory state oversight, developers of a coal-fired power plant could persuade county commissioners with promises of jobs and tax revenues, while neighboring counties would suffer effects of air and water pollution.
"It means something like Jerome could happen all over again," she said.
