Firm looks at county for coal-fired power plant

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Three decades after overwhelming public opposition killed the last attempt to build Idaho's first coal-fired power plant, a California company is raising the prospect again.

Sempra Energy Resources, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy, has an option on land between Glenns Ferry and Bliss, and spokesman Art Larsen said a coal-fired plant is being considered for the site. "We're not providing any specific information about land and water options at this time,'' Larsen said on Friday. "We're still in the very early stages of identifying the viability of such a project.

"There are needs for additional power in the region and diversity in the fuel used,'' he said. ``We've been studying the viability of this for a year now. It's a lengthy process.''

County Growth and Development Director Mark Russell said no application has been filed with the county at this point for such a project. Ron Swearingen, the city economic development director, said the company has been looking at the area for about two years, conducting studies and looking at land. "It's passed the talking stage, but it's by no means a done deal right now."

Larsen declined to identify the potential market for the power and what timetable the company was operating on.

But rancher John McCallum confirmed that Sempra took the option on property he owns along the Snake River south of King Hill.

There is no housing in the area, McCallum said, and most of the surrounding ranchland is his.

Still, opposition similar to what killed the coal-fired plant proposal in the 1970s was beginning to surface. Now, however, it appears tempered, at least initially, by the impact of new generating technology and economic concerns.

Vicki Smith lives about a mile downstream from McCallum's property in an undeveloped portion of the canyon known as Swiss Valley near three sturgeon fishing holes. "I hate to see it,'' Smith said, "because it's so beautiful in the valley.''

But she acknowledged that she cannot ignore the new jobs a plant could provide the area.

Greg Schaefer of Wyoming's Arch Coal Inc., one of a number of coal operations in Wyoming, Montana and Utah, emphasized that the latest technology has reduced sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate emissions from coal-fired generators, reducing the possibility of acid rain and smog.

Idaho has relied almost exclusively on commercial hydropower generation through its history for electricity although the state's largest utility has built some small power plants fueled by natural gas to help meet peak demand. Idaho Power Co., which has about 400,000 customers in Idaho, also has interests in coal-fired plants in Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming.

In the mid-1970s, Idaho Power proposed building the Pioneer Plant coal-fired generating facility near Mountain Home and was vigorously opposed. State regulators denied the project that critics said would create pollution and raise power rates. Bert Bowler or Idaho Rivers United said a coal-fired power plant next to the Snake River sounds like an ill-conceived idea.

"I assume it would meet a lot of opposition,'' he said.

In the 1990s a coal-fired plant from Rosebud Development Corp. was proposed just west of Mountain Home and south of the sawmill. The project died when Idaho Power, which had not wanted to purchase co-generated power from the plant, purchased the permit for the plant.