Idaho energy prices soar
Idaho's era of cheap energy is over

Eric Muhr
Idaho Press-Tribune
July 17 2008

IAs recently as 2005, Idahoans paid the second-lowest retail electricity rates in the nation. Thanks mainly to hydroelectric power, the Gem State has long enjoyed lower energy prices than its neighbors.

But Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, joined a slate of local and regional experts Wednesday to announce that the good old days have come to an end.

“Securing Idaho’s Energy Future,” a report released Wednesday, makes it clear that more and more Idahoans — faced with bigger bills for electricity and natural gas, let alone $4 gasoline — fit the international standard for “energy poverty.” That means more than 10 percent of their income goes to energy costs.

McKenzie, co-chair of an interim committee on energy and the environment, said the Legislature will be working this year to ease the pinch on pocketbooks by again considering a local-option sales tax provision that would allow individual communities to better fund public transportation. McKenzie added that there’s room for increased efficiency in home and government building codes and that the Legislature may also consider further incentives for the development of wind and geothermal power projects.

“We are just starting down that road,” McKenzie said. “We’ve had such low-cost energy in this state. We really are at a crossroads.” He predicted that the biggest potential for growth may be in wind power.

Farmers eye wind power

Dar Olberding, an Emmett farmer and legislative adviser for the Idaho Grain Producers, said wind power could be a boon for farmers.

“The increased price of fuel and fertilizer are new risks that affect our bottom line,” he said, adding that renewable energy in the form of wind power would offer the state’s agricultural operations stable and reliable energy costs.

In addition, Olberding said, landowners who agree to have a silo go up on their property receive annual payments of roughly $4,500 per tower.

“The Legislature and the governor support renewable energy and efficiency,” Olberding said, “but development on the ground is lagging. I see more and more legislators who get it. I hope they will come to Boise with a sense of urgency.”

Idaho’s wind power future

Boise-based Ridgeline Energy holds that Idaho has the potential to create up to 15,000 megawatts of wind energy, company Vice President Rich Rayhill said.

“Right now, we have developed just over 100 (megawatts),” he said, adding that there is clearly room for growth. “In Idaho, we’re blessed with wind, but we’ve only developed a tiny fraction of our potential.”

Rayhill said that Idaho ranks 13th in the nation for potential energy from wind.

Other energy sources

P.S. Reilly, an industry expert and author of the report released Wednesday, said Idaho has tremendous untapped resources of solar, geothermal and wind power, “more potential than neighboring states.”

Geothermal power, for instance, has been used in Boise for years as a source of hot water and for heating, Reilly said, calling it a “predictable, available and efficient” energy source for the future.

Reilly also illustrated the kind of creative work that can be done by mentioning Intrepid Tech, an Idaho Falls company that turns manure and other animal wastes into natural gas.

“There’s an amazing amount of resources to be harvested,” she said.