Owyhee County P&Z gives go ahead on CUP for nuke plant

The Owyhee County Planning and Zoning Department has approved the Idaho Energy Complex Conditional Use Permit application, clearing the way for the county's planning and zoning commission and Board of Commissioners to consider the 1.6-megawatt plant.

Commissioner Hal Tolmie made a motion seconded by Commissioner Jerry Hoagland to defer the fees and waive time limits on the review of a Conditional Use Permit application by Alternative Energy Holdings, Inc. (AEHI) at a meeting on July 16.

Don Gillispie, CEO of AEHI, as well as attorney Jay Clark, Idaho Energy Complex spokesperson Martin Johncox, Owyhee County planner Mark Pecchenino,, Greg Holtz, Doug McConnaughey from AEHI, Ester Ceja from Snake River Alliance, and Planning and Zoning Commissioner Joe Weatherby were present at the meeting. The action allowed delivery of the application to the Zoning Department for initiation of the public process which begins with administrative review.

"An application for a power plant is inherently complex and we have gone to great lengths to dot the i's and cross the t's," said Don Gillispie, Chairman and CEO of AEHI, a Nevada corporation seeking to develop the $3.5 billion power plant. "Owyhee County has held us to a high standard and we are certain they will give our application a thorough and fair review."

AEHI, a publicly traded company, has stated that they have obtained full financing for the project.

No public hearing dates have been set at this time. The local and NRC approval processes will take about three years,according to AEHI, which will include public hearings and informational meetings by Owyhee County and the NRC. A project time line is available at www.idahoenergycomplex.com.

Owyhee County residents have already spoken out about nuclear power. In an AEHI-sponsored informational meeting May 31, and in official public meetings about the county's proposed energy plan on July 9 and 16, company officials felt that residents generally offered support for the plant. At the meeting in May, only residents from Owyhee County were allowed to ask questions and make comments.

Owyhee County will announce further meetings, including official public hearings, as the approval process gets underway.

The IEC projects that it will employ about 500 people in skilled technical and administrative jobs when the plant is operational and 5,000 construction jobs during the approximately four years it will take to build the plant. Additional economic benefits cited by the company include a new market for crops and farm waste through the facility's attached biofuels plant, the ability to bring new farmland into production with lower-cost electricity, and lower power rates. Nuclear energy can be generated for as little as 2 cents a kilowatt, second only to hydroelectric power, based on comments from AEHI and the Idaho Energy Complex.