As Payette ponders the proposed facility, the state debates who should be making decisions on where to put power plants

Dec 19 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rocky Barker The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Idahoans will get their first chance Thursday to learn first-hand about a nuclear power plant proposed in Payette County.

The meeting comes as the debate over who should decide if or where a power plant should be built in Idaho continues.

Democrats want to set up a statewide commission to evaluate power plant sites. But Gov. Butch Otter said those decisions should remain at the local level.

Bill Fehrman, president and chief executive officer for the company, will be at the meeting to talk about the company's preliminary work now being done on a site in Payette County that the company is considering as a location for a new nuclear power plant.

Since news of the proposal first surfaced Dec. 3, Payette residents have been yearning to know more. The company had been drilling and doing seismic studies on the 1,400-acre ranch owned by Richard Robertson on Little Willow Creek Road northeast of Payette.

"The goal of the meeting is to provide members of the community an opportunity to learn more about the company and to talk about the preliminary work we're doing at the site to determine suitability," said Allan Urlis, a spokesman for MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which is the Des Moines, Iowa-based holding company for MidAmerican Nuclear.

The company, controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, is the parent company of PacificCorp and Rocky Mountain Energy Co., which provide electricity to parts of eastern Idaho. It won't make its own decision whether to go forward with what can be a 20-year permitting and construction process until mid to late 2008, said Urlis.

Payette County Commissioner Rudy Endrikat, who lives on Willow Creek Road, said he's keeping an open mind. But like his neighbors, he has concerns.

Beyond the nuclear issues, he's worried about traffic, the local economy, water and the potential for changing the rural character of the area.

"Quite honestly, I favor nuclear power," Endrikat said. "But is it right on Little Willow? I don't know."

Democrats hope to get the Legislature to reconsider a bill that would set up a statewide commission to evaluate power plant siting. MidAmerican's proposal, along with a proposal by a small startup company founded by a former nuclear industry executive, makes the bill even more important, said Boise Democratic Sen. Kate Kelly.

"We need to be thinking about Idaho's energy needs and the whole state," Kelly said.

The Idaho Legislature last session approved a bill that allowed counties to call on the expertise of state agencies like the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Gov. Butch Otter said he hasn't changed his view that power plant siting decisions should be local.

"No. What we're doing is exactly what we should be doing at the state level," Otter told the Idaho Statesman. "They don't have a DEQ with all the elements and the professionalism that (DEQ Administrator) Toni Hardesty has got out there in her shop.

"What we're saying to Payette County, as we've said to Owyhee County, as we've said to every county: Here's something new to us coming in, we'll apply all the professional acumen, all the professional knowledge, we'll warn you of the dangers, we'll give you every bit of support that we possibly can for you folks to make the decision."

Andrea Shipley, executive director of the Snake River Alliance, which supports a statewide siting panel, doesn't want counties to give up their own authority. But the ramifications of a power plant, especially a nuclear plant, go beyond county boundaries.

"Too much is at stake for three county commissioners to make energy policy in Idaho," Shipley said.

Endrikat said the issues go beyond Payette County, and he's not sure the commission should be the only local forum.

"I think the county should have some say-so as to whether it comes in, but as a citizen, not a commissioner, I want to hear from a lot of people," he said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would have the final say whether the plant would be built. But it looks at the issues from a national and nuclear engineering perspective. The state's current process isn't enough, Kelly said.

"We need to have Idaho officials deciding whether this is good for Idaho," she said.

Urlis said the company plans to hold other meetings with the public as the process progresses.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484