Friday afternoon the Malheur County Court was given the not-so-unexpected pleasure of a visit from past & present consultant-facilitator Rosemary Curtin of Rosemary Brennan Curtin Inc., and Kent McCarthy, Idaho Power system engineer. They came to meet with the Malheur County Energy Council, comprised of County Judge Dan Joyce, County Planners Jon Beal and Bill Lawrence, and rural residents Roger Findley, Cliff Looney, and Clinton Kennington.
The reason for the visit was to ask the Court to support RCBI's Project Advisory Committee initiative by supplying names of county residents willing to sit on a "citizens task force" to hopefully "communicate better with Idaho Power."
We've been hearing these committee members are supposed to help choose a new transmission line route, too.
There were also visits by Idaho Power personnel to Vale City Council, Ontario City Council, and Baker City. A real dissemination of public relations pixie dust.
This in spite of the fact that all citizens groups in Idaho and Oregon are already firmly in agreement as to where the line should go. In spite of the fact Idaho Power is still pursuing its "unusual" PUC IRP Addendum filing with its original route map.
From what we are seeing, Idaho Power is spending a ton of money on lawyers, PR people, and deputized engineers and planners to defeat our scattered bands of hardy rural citizens on points of Oregon law. It isn't letting up. IPCo ought to run a cost benefit analysis on what they're getting for all they're spending on a losing legal and pubic relations battle.
I never heard one of these really smart people ever say, "there is merit in one or two of your alternate routes," or, "EFU land is off the table." They think it is our duty to "compromise" by giving up our livelihood, our legal rights, and our way of life for the benefit of their bottom line, their ease, and their dominance.
We stand united in our resolve.
