Storming the Capitol buildingI'm posting Mike Ferguson's entire article until I have a chance to write my own comments. I am thinking of getting a subscription to the Baker City Herald, where I get more news about what is happening in Ontario than I do in Ontario.
Idaho Power critics take case to Salem
Written by MIKE FERGUSON Baker City Herald April 10, 2009
Written by MIKE FERGUSON Baker City Herald April 10, 2009
Two Baker County residents travel to Capitol to testify for a bill that could stymie company’s plans to build line through county (actually there were more than 2 residents of Baker County there)
About two dozen people — including a pair of Baker County residents — bused to Salem and back Thursday to testify in support of a bill that would ban utility facilities, including transmission and natural gas lines, in land zoned exclusively for farm or forest use so long as most of the power transmitted by the facility is consumed within an urban growth boundary.
Nancy Peyron of Baker City and Diane Bloomer of Durkee were among 17 people who testified on House Bill 3153 before the House Committee on Sustainability and Economic Development.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, an Ontario Republican who represents Baker County, is the committee’s vice-chair. “Twenty-four people left from Ontario at 3 o’clock this morning and they’ve been joined by several people from Baker County,” Bentz told his colleagues at the beginning of the two-hour hearing. “They hope to build upon what Rep. (Brian) Clem started, to develop a better fashion of moving energy across Oregon.”
Clem, D-Salem, and Rep. Deborah Boone, D-Coos Bay, are authors of the bill. During testimony Clem told the committee he wants to be sure that “if and when” transmission or liquefied natural gas lines cross EFU and forest ground, “that landowners get a decent deal.”
“As you can see by the people here,” Clem said, referring to the nearly full Capitol hearing room, “this is a big deal. These folks need to be treated in a fair manner.
“I’m not here to indict any one project,” Clem told the committee, “but I believe that farm and forestland are primarily to be used for timber production and food production. If it’s going to be used differently, farmers need to be compensated.”
Members of the Malheur County citizens group Stop Idaho Power and the Baker County group Move Idaho Power said they support Bentz’s amendment to the bill that would ban towers higher than 50 feet on EFU and forest ground and would give local planners power to, as Bentz said, “look at the ground and decide if it should be preserved for farming use. The idea is not to prohibit transmission. It’s to find a better means by which it can go.”
Malheur County’s agricultural producers and their suppliers testified first at Thursday’s hearing.
James Jennings, who works with aerial applications with Farmers Supply Cooperative in Ontario, said that night applications around any towers under 200 feet would have to be curtailed, since the Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t require those towers to be lighted.
Clinton Kennington, who runs a farm and a dairy near Bentz’s Ontario home, said that passing the bill with Bentz’s amendment “won’t cost Oregon much, but Not passing it will result in a loss of revenue to the counties and the state,” especially in agricultural sales.
Jay Chamberlain, manager of the Owyhee Project, Oregon’s largest irrigation project, called the 129,000 irrigated acres within the project “the lifeblood of these growers, and without it we would not have the Treasure Valley (in Idaho and Eastern Oregon). We live in the desert. Irrigation is the only way we can produce crops. We can’t allow something that will threaten our distribution system.”
Pat Phillips, a Malheur County Realtor, told the committee she’s been told by buyers they don’t wish to purchase rural property in Malheur County “until they know if the line will traverse their property.”
Larry Price, who grows alfalfa seed grain in Adrian, said he’s afraid that the high voltage lines will, among other things, confuse the inner gyroscopes of the leafcutter bees that pollinate his crop. He also turned over to the committee letters written to Gov. Ted Kulongoski from sixth graders at Adrian Elementary School who live “300 paces” from where the power line was initially proposed.
Speaking next, Peyron told the committee Idaho Power’s proposed transmission line would remove 1,909 acres from agricultural production in Baker County.
Peyron’s family donated some of property that became the BLM’s Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
“We’ve always been respectful of that land, and it’s horrifying to me that these towers can suddenly appear,” she said. “It’s development at its worst.”
Bloomer, who operates a cattle and hay business in Durkee, worries like her counterparts in Malheur County that the towers will affect irrigation practices on her ranch. She said she’s also concerned that building the towers could hasten the spread of noxious weeds.
The third member of the Bloomer/Peyron panel was Kate Kimball, a senior policy analyst with 1000 Friends of Oregon. The group has been surprisingly supportive of Move Idaho Power’s concerns, Peyron said by telephone from the chartered bus on her way home Thursday night.
“You wouldn’t site a utility on an Intel or a Nike site, but farmland and ranchland are in the same situation,” Kimball told the committee. “This is the land where people earn their living.”
“We need to look at the impact a project like this would have on each segment,” Kimball added. “This bill takes good steps in that direction. Please protect farmland.”
After that, it was time to hear from lobbyists who represent Oregon utilities.
Gary Bauer of Northwest Natural Gas told the committee his company sometimes has trouble “getting the entire length of a project on public land,” although public land is typically where the company begins in seeking a route.
Tom Gallagher of PGE said that if his company “didn’t have to develop renewable energy as we do, we wouldn’t have to be in rural areas as we are.”
His colleague, Bob Hall, said he’d checked with PGE engineers who told him the 50-foot maximum for towers as proposed by Bentz would be “tantamount to a prohibition.”
In order to accommodate the extra sag in electrical lines during the summer, towers would have to be 100 to 150 feet tall, he said.
“I understand what folks are trying to do, but we have a problem getting power to the people who use it,” he said.
The last to testify was John Brenneman, a lobbyist for Idaho Power. Brenneman said Idaho Power officials have asked him to seek the names of people to serve on advisory groups that will work with the company to come up with a route more acceptable than the original proposal.
“I have been meeting with Farm Bureau and co-op people,” he said. “We shelved (the initial proposal) and I thought everyone knew that.”
“I have been meeting with Farm Bureau and co-op people,” he said. “We shelved (the initial proposal) and I thought everyone knew that.”
“In all the years I’ve served Idaho Power since 1992, I usually figure ways to get Idaho Power out of a bill. We’ve never been the target of a bill, and I’m not comfortable with that situation.
“This is a company that is responsive to the community and responsive to ratepayers. They are going back to reopen the process.
“I can arrange a team from Boise (Idaho Power’s headquarters) to keep you informed. This is a big project that will serve one-half of our needs and help (Bonneville Power Administration) and other privates (utilities).”
A member of the committee, Rep. Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, said he looked forward to hearing more from the company.
“I think that kind of explanation would be useful, but the folks who need it most are the folks in this audience,” Witt said. “I think it would go a long way to patching up difficulties that folks are having. A community town hall would be helpful.”
