20170801Hearing Transcript Vol I.pdf

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ORIGI|YAL CSB REPORTING
C ertifted Shorthand Reporters
Post Office Box9774
Boise,Idaho 83707
[e-mail]
Ph: 208-890-5198 Fax: l-888-623-6899
Reporter:
Constance Bucy,
CSR
BEEORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR A
CERTIEICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE
AND NECESSITY TO CONSTRUCT
SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS EOR WOOD
RIVER VALLEY CUSTOMERS
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
CASE NO. IPC.E-16_28
BEEORE
COMMISSIONER ERIC ANDERSON (PTesiding)
COMMISSIONER KRISTINE RAPER
COMMISSIONER PAUI KJELLANDER
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G=rPLACE:Ketchum City HalI
480 East Avenue North
Ketchum, Idaho
DATE:JuLy 26, 20L7
VOLUMEI-Pagesl-95
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
APPEARANCES
For the Staff:Karl T. KJ.ein, Esq.
Deputy Attorney General
472 West WashingtonBoise, Idaho 83120-0074
For Idaho Power Company Donovan E. I[a1ker, Esg.
Idaho Power Company
Post Office Box 10
Boise, fdaho 83707-0070
Eor Leslie A. Tidwell-:RICHARDSON ADAMS, PLLCby Peter J. Richardson, Esq.
Post Office Box 12tBBoise, Idaho 83102
For the Si-erra Club:KELSEY JAE NUNEZ LLC
by Kelsey .Iae Nunez
920 North Clover Drive
Boise, Idaho 83703
For Laura Midgley:Laura Midgley
237 Val1ey Club DriveHailey Idaho 83333
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APPEARANCES
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
]NDEX
WITNESS EXAM]NATION BY PAGE
Sue Woodyard
( Public)
Statement trJ
Kerrin McCall
( Public)
StatementMr. Richardson (Cross)
B
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Mary Joe Conger
( Public)
Statement 79
Cynthia Mann
( Public)
Statement
Commissioner Kj ellander
2t
22
Elizabeth Corker
( Public)
Statement 23
John Craig
( Public )
Statement 26
Tanya Furlong
( PubIic)
Statement 2B
Shawn Bennion
( Public)
Statement 30
Ann Christensen
( Public)
Statement 5Z
Mickey Garcia
( Public)
Statement 36
Sheri Thomas
( Public)
Statement 47
Peter Hendricks
( Public)
Statement 42
Kaz Thea
( Public)
Statement 45
Len Harlig
( Public )
Statement
Commissioner Raper
49
51
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INDEX
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
INDEX (Continued)
WITNESS EXAMINATION BY PAGE
Sabrina Roblin
( Public )
Statement 53
Daniel- Henry
( Public )
Statement 56
Mark George
( Public )
Statement 59
John Galgano
( PubIic )
Statement bZ
Kingsley Murphy
( Public)
Statement 65
Scott Runkel
( Public)
Statement 69
Harry Griffith
( PubIic)
Statement 17
James Rosenfeld
( Public)
Statement 13
Jim Sl-anetz
( Public)
Statement
Commissioner Raper
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Aimee Christensen
( Public)
Statement 79
Joanne V0etherell
( Public )
Statement BB
Jason Pretty-Boy
( Public )
Statement 90
Scott Parker
( Public )
Statement 93
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INDEX
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CSB REPORTING
Wil-der, Idaho 8367 6
EXHIBITS
NUMBER DESCRIPTION PAGE
FOR THE PUBL]C:
901 - Email from Rlck LeFaivre
dated 7 /L4/15
Identified 1B
902 - Meeting Minutes dated 8/9/06 Identified 1B
903 - Copy of a color picture Identifled 94
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EXHIBITS
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
1
KETCHUM, TDAHO, WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 2071, 7:00 P. M
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Once again, good
evening, ladies and gentl-emen. I caII this meeting to
order. Today is Wednesday, JuTy 26, 2071. This is the
time and place for a public hearing before the Idaho
Pub1ic Utilities Commission, Case No. IPC-E-16-28,
further identified as in the matter of the application of
Idaho Power for a certj-ficate of publi-c convenj-ence and
necessity to construct system improvements for Wood River
Val-Iey customers. Wefre here to take public testimony
from customers and public official-s who are not parties
to this case.
My name is Eric Anderson and I will- be the
Chairman of this hearing this evening. f'm one of three
Commissioners. To my far right is Commissioner Kristine
Raper. Shers not far right, and to my right is
Commissioner PauI Kjellander. We have with us our court
reporter Connie Bucy and she does a wonderful- job for us.
The intent of these proceedings is for the three
Commissioners to take public testj-mony to complete the
building of the official- record.
Once the record is completely built and
the case is closed, al-l- three Commissioners wil-l- theno25
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
2
deliberate based on all evidence and all- matters that are
of the official record of the case. We serve as a
three-panel judiciary body and our rol-e, again, this
evening is to ensure that your testimony is included
appropriately in the record.
The way we wil-l- operate this evening is I
wil-l- call the names of people that have signed up to
testify and you will come forward as I call your name.
Commissioner Raper will swear you in and Mr. Klein from
the Attorney General's Of f ice wil-l- ask you a few
questi-ons to identify you for the purpose of the formal-
record. Then you will proceed with your statement, but
remember, if you've already submitted written comments in
this case, they are in the record already and so you
don't need to repeat things you've already put i-n your
letter. If you have something to add, you certainly may
get up and add something e1se, though.
The Commission's decision in thls case has
to be based upon substantial- and competent evidence in
the record, which is why all of our proceedings are
transcribed by a court reporter and are avail-able for
public inspection.
testimony, we will
parties present at
fs
Before we start with public
now take the
this hearing
there anybody
appearances of any
as intervenors.
representing Idaho Powero25
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CSB REPORTING
( 208 ) I 90-s1 9B
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here this evening?
MR. WALKER: Yes, Donovan Walker, attorney
for Idaho Power.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thanks, Don.
Anybody representing Commission Staff?
MR. KLEIN: Karl Klein for the Commission
Staff
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Karl-.
City of Ketchum?
MS. JONAS: Nina Jonas, Ketchum Mayor,
City of Ketchum.
COMMTSSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mayor.
Representing Kiki Tidwell?
MR. RICHARDSON: Peter Richardson,
Mr. Chairman, oD beha1f of Kiki Leslie Tidwell, and to my
l-ef t is Ms. Tidwel-l-.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you very
much, Peter. Laura Midgley?
MS. MIDGLEY: Laura Midgley.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Representing
yourself, okay. Rock Rolling Properties and Rock Rolling
Properties No. 2, LLC? I'm seeing nobody here for them,
and the Si-erra Club?
MS. NUNEZ: Kelsey Nunez with the Idaho
Sierra Cl-ub and to my right is Mike Heckler, our witness.o 25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
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much. LastIy,
answer session
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
a reminder, this is not
for the Commissioners.
Thank you very
a question and
This is an
opportunity
once yout re
opportunity
any of the I
for you to testify to the Commission and then
complete with that, there may be an
for us to ask some clarification questions if
Commissioners choose to.
For the court reporter's sake, please
speak clearly. Don't be offended if she says you need to
stop and so she can make some adjustments. She does that
occasionally, and I'd also before we begin like to have
any elected officiaLs that might be with us tonight stand
up and j-ntroduce themselves.
MS. JONAS: Nina Jonas, Mayor of Ketchum.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you.
MR. HENDRICKS: Peter Hendricks and I'm
the Mayor of Sun Va11ey.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Nice to meet you.
MR. SLANETZ: Jim Slanetz, Ketchum City
Council-.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Welcome and thank
you for attending this evening.
MR. DAVID: And I'm Michael David with the
Ketchum City Councll as weII.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you,25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
Michael. Okay, anything else the Commission should l-ist?
So with that, 1et's call- our first individual that has
signed up and I believe we have another sign-up sheet out
there somewhere. Just bring it up whenever you have a
chance. First on my l-ist tonight is Sue Woodyard.
Wel-come.
SUE WOODYARD,
appearing as a public witness, havJ-ng been duly sworn,
was exami-ned and testlf ied as foll-ows:
EXAM]NATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
a Good evening.
General's Office and
I'm Karl Klein with the
I just have a fewAttorney
introductory
the record.
name and speIl
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questions to get your testimony started on
First of all, would you please state your
your last name?
Sue Woodyard, W-o-o-d-y-a-r-d.
And what j-s your address?
105 Red Devil-.
And are you a customer of Idaho Power?
I am.
Please go ahead with your statement.
Deep breath as I start this off. Thank
trJ WOODYARD
Public
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
you
and
here
very much,Commission,
a resident
for hearing public
f'm here as of Blaine County.
ful1 time for 24 years. I am a ratepayer
testimony
I 've l-ived
for 24
ratepayer, I
$ 4 0 mi]lion
years and I'm here shouldering I wil-I be here
shouldering
transmission
other people
along with thousands of
I voiced our opinion to
the P&Z when and we applauded the
My
theam outraged at prospect of spending 35 to
on this transmission 11ne without thoroughly
investigating all the modern, current technol-ogy that is
the costs of these rate i-ncreases if thls
line goes through,
within our va11ey.
My neighbors and
this j-ssue came up
denial of the conditional use permit and now f'm here to
voice my strong objection to the transmission l-ine that
is about to be approved. I have three reasons for doing
this. They're simple reasons and we read them in the
paper, but I feel- very strongly about them.
First, this doesn't solve the problem.
The l-ine, the new transmission l-ine, will run paral-l-el-
with the existing line and, therefore, w1l-l be subject to
the same kinds of issues that the current line has, fire,
weather-related crises, things like that, and it also
still comes through the Hail-ey substation just like the
existing l-ine.
second reason is that as a
6 WOODYARD
Pubfic
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
out there and changing on a regular almost daily basis as
this information comes down the pipe1ine. Can't we take
the time to slow this down and real-Iy investigate what is
new since the first plan came out? This is an o1d p1an,
and there's so many new energy resources that are
available to us at costs that are stil-l- being judged.
Can't we take the time to investigate this further?
And lastly, the P&Z comprehensive plan
promised to protect the view corridor of our va11ey. I
live in Bl-aine County that woul-d be most affected by the
new transmj-ssion line. I drive Buttercup, up Buttercup
and up Highway 75 every day that I come to work. Is this
what I want to see down my view corridor? Is this what I
want my neighbors to see? Is this what I want the
visitors that are going to come for the eclipse to see?
Now, it won't be then, but for the next eclj-pse, is this
what we want our view corridor to look like?
I've heard that the Commission has heard
the va1ley people, the residents here, are in favor of
this transmission line, the redundant line.
here to say
that there
that I am not the l-one voice in
Wel1, f'm
this va11ey,
el-ectedare nei-ghbors, friends, there are
officials, Sun Valley as well as Ketchum, who are opposed
and I applaud that they have stepped forward as wel-l-.
Agai-n, f strongly am in a simple position. I l-ive here
1 WOODYARD
PubIic
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
B McCALL
Public
ful-l- time, but I cherish what this valIey offers all of
us and I cherish what
the cost to live here
to have that changed,
Thank
the view corridor l-ooks l-ike, what
looks like, and
so I appreciate
f don't rea11y want
the time.
you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank
there any questions from the Commission? Any
of the parties?
you. Are
questi-ons
MR. RICHARDSON: No questions, Your
Honor.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you very
much.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Kerrin McCal-l-.
Wel-come.
appearing as
was examined
KERR]N McCALL,
a public wj-tness, having been duly sworn,
and testif ied as f oll-ows:
EXAMINAT]ON
O Good evening. Could you please state youro25
BY MR. KLE]N:
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CSB REPORTTNG
(2oB ) B9o-s198
9 McCALL
Publ-ic
name and spe1l your last name?
My name is Kerrin McCal-1, M-c-C-a-l--l-.
And what's your address?
105 Sunnyside, Ketchum.
Are you a customer of ldaho Power?
Yes, I am.
Go ahead and make your statement
A
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you.
way to
A I'l-l- read my
Commj-ssioners, thank
statement if that's okay with
you so much for coming all the
about IdahoKetchum to hear from our community
Power's proposed redundant transmj-ss j-on 1ine. As chair
of the Ketchum Energy Advisory Committee, participant 1n
the former Wood River Va11ey Renewable Energy Worklng
Group established by Idaho Power, and a member of the
Wood River Va11ey Electrical Plan Community Advisory
Committee since 2013, I've been invol-ved with energy
concerns in the Wood River Va11ey for more than 10 years.
I have specifically addressed the proposed redundant
transmission line since 2008.
I am in support of reliable energy to the
Wood River Va1ley; however, I believe that Idaho Power
has failed to address a ful-l- range of al-ternative
approaches to rel-iability and energy resilience and has
determined that constructing a redundant transmission
l-ine is the only option/ one that is expensJ-ve: $30o25
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million plus $6.2 million cost of rebui1ding the existing
line. Local north va1Iey resj-dents and al-l- Idaho Power
ratepayers would pay for this l-ine, which wil-l- disrupt
the scenic quality of the va11ey forever, affect property
val-ues, and rejects our community's desire and need for
energy resil- j-ence.
Although there are many aspects of the
redundant l-1ne proposal I coul-d discuss, I am aware that
there have been -- they have been addressed by
intervenors in the docket and by the PUC's own Staff.
Eor the sake of time this evening, I will mostly give
testimony related to the CAC process, one that was flawed
from the outset.
Idaho Power's approach with the CAC from
its inception has been to get l-ocal- agreement with the
Company's desired outcome; the construction of a second
transmission l-ine from Hailey to Ketchum. The CAC was
manipulated for the benefit of the Company's agenda and
an outcome to profit the Company and its sharehol-ders.
During a Wood River Renewabl-e Energy Working Group
meeti-ng, Mike Youngblood, who is here tonight, manager of
regulatory projects for Idaho Power, told the group that
Idaho Power makes money building things. Like any
corporation, making money and maximizing sharehol-der
returns is the primary objective. Building a $30 mill-ion
CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-51e8
McCALL
Public
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redundant line benefits the corporation.
The original Community Advisory Committee,
the CAC, was comprised of individuals within the
community with no expertise in el-ectrical energy,
renewabfe energy or environmental issues, except for one
representative from the environmental- community who moved
away from the valley early in the process and was not
replaced, because the Company felt it would take too long
to bring a new person up to speed in their electric
utility education process. The committee was not
representative of our community, which 1s forward
thinking and desirous of a path to true energy security
and resil-ience.
Internal documents reveal- that the Company
educated the CAC to achieve the Company's desired
outcome. The CAC was a tool for the Company's
objectives. Certainly, there was concern from the start
among members for aesthetic val-ues and cost, but the
preferred a1ternative was an overhead l-ine up the highway
and that's what the Company strategized for achieving.
Undergrounding was realistically deemed too expensive and
by PUC regulations, I believe, the cost of undergrounding
would be incumbent upon all ratepayers from East Fork
north.
With the prospect of l-oca1s incurrj-ng the
CSB REPORT]NG
( 208 ) B 90-s1 98
McCALL
Publ-ic
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CSB REPORTTNG(208) 890-s198
McCALL
Publ-ic
enormous cost of undergrounding even a portion of the
l-ine from the hospital into Ketchum, the Ketchum
substation, the CAC was more open to looking at
alternatives.
The Company said they needed a line in
order to
Iine and
required.
say that
facilitate the reconstruction of the existing
indicated isto provide
However,
the redundancy they
in their own internal documents, they
for the north
pIan.
reliability
n-1 rellability is not required
vaIley section of the Wood River electrical-
"We will need to modify the
the Woodeducation section
won't require n-1
a l-ittl-e since River Va11ey
reliability, at l-east
we want the Wood Ri-ver
not per WECC
system to remain
to n-1? And what
regulations.
an improved
Do
radial- or do we want it up
do we use as justification for either position?"
Clearly, Idaho Power misled the CAC by not
includlng this information in the education process. If
a redundant l-ine was not required, then why didn't IPCo,
Idaho Power, present another option early on?
In 20L3, the Company did suggest to the
CAC that a temporary shoo-fIy l-ine be built up the
highway to run power while the existing l-ine was
reconstructed. I felt this was an effective sol-uti-on and
the least expensive alternative, whife most CAC memberso25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
McCALL
Public
fel-t it was a waste of money, even though the materials
would be stocked back into inventory for reuse when the
l-ine was removed. Idaho Power rejected the idea saying
that the CAC said
be deemed a visual
it would be
impact by
a line that
temporary
this is
could a
a permanent line's
that it would assuredly
north valley customers.
would be temporary and come
line be arguably a visual
visual impact not be a
Remember,
down. How
issue and
concern?
I would like to remind the Commissioners
and the CAC that the new distribution l-ine built from
East Fork to the hospital during the highway
reconstruction would be completely dismantled and
returned to inventory if a redundant line were to be
bui1t.
Idaho Power then proposed redundant
distribution to avoid undergroundj-ng into Ketchum, a new
strategy never used by the Company we were tol-d. The
system of distribution l-ines tied to a substation south
of the hospital- would bring power in and accept
increasing local renewabfe energy generation to augment
the grid and increase local- energy resilience.
The concept was approved for research and
substation location. The scenario was set for some
creative engineering to establish the base case for cost.o
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
McCALL
PubIic
In this respect, I feel I and others were mlsled into
accepting an idea that seemed a sol-ution to our efforts
to work collaboratively with the Company to develop
distributed renewabl-e energy resources while reducing
costs incumbent on the north va11ey for undergrounding
the l-ine.
CAC member Rick LeFai-vre wrote in an email
to me and Kiki Tidwel-l- on July 14th, 20t4, I quote,
"Through some rea1Iy creative engineering, physical and
financial, they now have a cost estimate of under $2
million, which they are now talking to the citj-es and
county about how to cover. "
Dynamlc changes occurred in 20!5 when
Idaho Power suggested that high cost that the high
cost of this plan could el-iminate l-ocal-s being charged
for undergrounding j-nto Ketchum. The cost would be
incurred by all ratepayers.
CAC members seemed to think that if we can
get a redundant line with undergrounding into Ketchum
from the hospital with no local- charges, then maybe we
should just take that and not l-ook carefully at
alternatives.
We have been misled. Now the PUC Staff
apparently sees through this
Iooks Ilke we have the worst
financial engineering and it
of both worlds, a proposa1o25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
McCALL
Public
that didn't carefully look at al-ternatives to a redundant
line and substantial cost impacts. I feel that I have
been misl-ed as a participant in this process with Idaho
Power. I feel that our company
as Idahomisl-ed as we1l, ds well-Power ratepayers across
the state.
It makes absolutely no sense to buil-d a
permanent redundant line at a very high cost of $30
milIj-on, plus the reconstruct cost of the existing line
at $6.2 million for a total- of 936.2 mil-l-ion when the
shoo-fIy option, plus existing line rebuj-1d, would cost
$26 million less. Our valley woul-d then continue having
an existing line rebuil-t with a 99.999 percent
rel-iabil-ity rate, which is the rate of the existing line,
or even 100 percent reliability with Idaho's expertise in
transmission l-ine maintenance and repair.
our community has been
finished. A second line, oo matter
offer rel-iabil-ity when the greater
Al-most
nothow robust, does
grid goes down.We've already experienced the
consequences of that kind of failure in the 2009
Christmas outage.
Idaho Power, the corporation, is making
choices to benefit the corporation, not the ratepayers.
I hope that transparency offers an opportunity for the
PUC to see clearly that the Company has mj-sled ouro25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
McCALLPublic
community,
proposal.
obfuscate
which has already said no to the current
Unfortunately, Idaho Power continues to
the issue with an advertisement in last
Fri-day' s Mountain
line would provide
transmission line
Express that cfaims that the redundant
a second source of energy. The
does not provide energy, nor does it
provide a second source. It connects to the same Hailey
substation as the first l-ine. A11 sources of energy
coming from the Hailey substation remaj-n the same source
regardless of transmission l-ine of the transmj-ssion
line and the source of energy i-s supplied at the site of
generation, which is far out of our valley.
Transparency, honesty, and forthrightness
serve our communi-ty in al-l- respects. Idaho Power Company
has failed to ethically and transparently address energy
security in the North Wood River Valley. Thank you.
(Applause from the audience. )
COMMISSTONER ANDERSON: Let that probably
be the l-ast applauding that we have this evening. This
is a formal- proceeding. Treat it as a courtroom. My
understanding is there's a l-ot of appreciation for things
that are being said, but this Commission does recognize
that and so please refraj-n from any more applause. Thank
you.
Did the Commission have any questions?o 25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) B9o-s198
McCALL (x)
Public
Any of the parties?
MR. RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, with your
indulgence, I do have a couple.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Could someone hand
her the microphone?
MR. RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, this is
just in aid
referenced
of making a complete record. Ms. McCall
two documents. I'd Iike to show those to her
and I'd l-ike to have them introduced into the record as
documents that she relied on in her testlmony.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: You may.
MR. RICHARDSON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
CROSS_EXAMINAT ION
BY MR. RICHARDSON:
O Just telJ- me if you recognJ-ze these
documents.
f\Yes, I do. I recognize both of them.
MR. RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, frll
identify the documents as Exhibit No. 207, which
from Rick LaFaivre to Ms.
r_s a
July 14th, 20L5, email Tidwe11,
and the other document is meeting mj-nutes from 8/9/06,
f rom Idaho Power, which I'd l-ikeinternal meeting minutes
marked as Exhibit No. 202.o ac.ZJ
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
McCALL (x)
PubIic
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: We'1I give the
email- Exhibit No. 901 and we'11 give the meeting mj-nutes
Exhibi-t No. 902.
(Publ-ic Exhibit Nos. 901 & 902 were marked
for identification. )
MR. RICHARDSON: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thatrs al-l- the questions I have.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, and
thank you, Ms. McCall.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Next we have Mary
Jane forgive me
MS.CONGER: Conger.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: -- Congee?
MS. CONGER: Conger.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Conger, welcome.
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CONGER
Public
MARY JANE CONGER,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as fol-lows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN
O Would you please say your name and spe11
your last name?
A Mary Jane Conger, C-o-n-g-e-r.
O Whatrs your address?
A 238 2nd Street East. I usualJ-y have to go
out and l-ook at it and make sure that I'm right.
v
A
n
A
Are you a
Yes, I am
Pl-ease go
f've been
customer of Idaho Power?
ahead.
a rather long-term customer of
Idaho Power and it's a pleasure being here. Thank you.
to the two l-adies whoI have nothing to
spoke before me.
say compared
I l-earned a lot from them.
One thing that I might
pretty strongly about, a1so, are the
transmission towers, and I wonder who
add that I feef
towers, the
addressing the EMF toxicity that will
250-foot transmission towers or lines.
in the Company is
be created by
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CSB REPORT]NG
(208 ) 890-s198
CONGER
Publ1c
seeing that for the rest of the time I'm living and other
through this beautiful-people are living
va11ey.
AS they come
I understand that wires in the ground are
generally no problem. I don't think I have any more to
say. It was kind of short. I shoul-d have something more
to say when these testimonies are going on so 1ong, but I
feel pretty strongly as a long-term resj-dent and somebody
who is concerned about how my area l-ooks, about this trip
back and forth to Hailey, just how it's looking. It
doesn't have anything to do right now with what el-se is
going on. There are a lot of things. I agree with the
new technology that's going on that should be taken care
of, but I think therers something wrong if we resort to
250-foot towers that are toxic. They create an awful- lot
of problems with the EMF toxicity, so with that, I will-
just thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. Are
there any questj-ons? Thank you, Ms. Conger, and it's not
the length of your testimony, it's the breadth, so we
appreciate anybody that has anything to sdy, so please do
feel- welcome to come up.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Cindy Mann is
next.o 25
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
MANN
Public
CYNTHIA MANN,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAM]NATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Woul-d
last name please?
A Itrs
you state your name and spell your
Cynthia Mann, M-a-n-n.
O And what's
380 Llttl-e
your address?
Wood Reservoir Road in Carey.A
o
A
n
A
Are you an Idaho Power customer?
Oh, you betcha.
Pl-ease go ahead.
thank you all
And my comment
for being here
wiII be short as weII. I
and
hour to get
husband and
here from out of the
I are farmers down
monthly fees to Idaho Power are
in the Carey area
pretty hefty and
listening and I
south county.
drove an
My
and our
so my
concern is how much more the base ratepayer is going to
be charged for a line that may or may not be useful-, and
granted given all the testimony, given all the
information, f do agree with Kerrin's statement, Sue's
statement that this should be l-ooked at closer, and Io25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
MANN (Com)
Publ-ic
really want to know how much it's golng to cost us. I
mean, we're writing checks to Idaho Power l-0,000, 72,000
a month, so I want to know how much more itrs going to
be. It's our second largest cost in our production, so
thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. Are
there any questions?
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Just one.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Commissioner
Kj el1ander.
EXAMINATION
BY COMMISS]ONER KJELLANDER:
O Just for clarification, then, are you an
irrigator?
A Yes.
O Okay, and that's where the bulk of your
costs come from?
A Yes.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Parties? Thank
you very much.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
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CSB REPORTTNG
(208 ) 890-s198
CORKER
Publ-ic
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Next we have Lt-z
Corker. Welcome.
ELIZABETH CORKER,
appearing as a public wj,tness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as f ol-Iows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
A Would you go ahead and say your name and
spel1 your last name?
A Sure, it's Elizabeth, E-l-i-z-a-b-e-t-h,
Corker, C-o-r-k-e-r, and my address is 11 Big Dipper Lane
in Hailey.
O You're an Idaho Power customer?
A Uh-huh, yes.
O Please go ahead.
A First, I wanted to say that f appreciate
Kerrj-n McCal1's detailed test j-mony outlining the reasons
that Idaho Power is pushing this. I too feel- that Idaho
Power has misled this community so it can build a
boondoggle project
not the ratepayers.
Wetherell's l-etter
that woul-d benefit the corporation,
I also appreciated Joanne
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restate and paraphrase a littl-e bit what she said.
As a resident of our gorgeous va11ey, it
1s my opinion that building a transmi-ssion l-ine above
ground along our scenic highway would greatly degrade
property values in our community. The Bl-aine County
Planning & Zoning Commission rightly declined Idaho Power
Companyrs transmission l-ine proposal applying the
standards of the county comprehensive plan created to
protect our scenic corridor and the qual-ity of l-ife for
resident and visitors al,ike. If this line is bui1t,
Hailey and mid valley residents will pay for
undergrounding Ketchum lines and yet get saddled with up
to 60-foot transmission po1es, four lines over the entire
length of the mid va1Iey.
Then it turns out I had the exact same
picture as Sue Woodyard. It's freakish and this is any
front yard. This is my front yard, so already I'm
looking at a big eyesore and I can't imagine this eyesore
getting worse and having to pay for a worse eyesorer so I
just wanted to in closing read what the PUC's Staff
engineer Mike Morrison saj-d, which I think sums up why
this 1s not needed in a very simple way.
"The residents of the North Wood River
Va1ley already benefit from very reliabl-e power and the
Company provided no evidence that in the event of a rare
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
CORKER
Pubfic
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catastrophic event, it would be unable to restore power
in a timely manner. In short, the Company has not
demonstrated that a second Wood River-Ketchum line would
provide a significant reliability benefit to the North
Wood River VaIIey. "
I encourage the PUC to deny this proposal.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Any questions from
the Commlssion? The parties? Mr. Richardson.
MR. RICHARDSON: Mr. Chairman, Ms. Corker,
coul-d you make a copy of that picture available for the
record?
THE WITNESS: Sure.
MR. RICHARDSON: Would you gi-ve it to the
court reporter?
THE WITNESS: I don't have it with me. I
read if off my computer, but I can make it available.
THE AUDIENCE: The picture.
THE WITNESS: Oh, this picture, sure.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: We'11 enter that
as Exhibit No. 903.
THE WfTNESS: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: We'11 retract
that. It doesn't have to be an exhj-bit, so 903 is going
CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CORKER
Publ i c
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CSB REPORT]NG
( 208 ) B 90-s1 9B
CRAIG
Public
to be avail-able for the next person. VrJere there any
other questions?
MR. RfCHARDSON: No, Mr. Chairman. Thank
you.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Next on the list
we have John Craig.
JOHN CRAIG,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as fol-l-ows:
EXAM]NATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
o
name, and give
A
Turf. That is
with the power
been here about
Could you state your name, spe1l your last
us your address?
John Craig, C-r-a-i-g. I live on 108
out j-n Warm Springs. We have a problem
l-ine that's been there for decades. I've
40 years. What I have to sdy, Ir11 be a
pariah to most of the people here, but I see the future.
f know that the existing l-ine is only adequate for what
we have at the moment, and f donrt know if this new l-ine
is the answer and from what I view here from all- the25
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CSB REPORT]NG
[phone]
CRA]G
PubI i c
testimony, it doesnft meet the needs of the
but I just want to say that in the
Volvo going in 20L9 and they're not
future,
gas-powered.
hybrids
will- be
They'11 have what's
THE AUDIENCE: Hybrid.
community,
we look at
going
Prius
to make any
cal-l-ed
We'11- need a
the way to get
happen far sooner
it, and frve never
expressed already
THE WITNESS: hybrids. They'11 have
and electrics. Britain and Erance in 2040, there
no more gas-powered cars. We will need more
energy to come into this va11ey and I don't. think solar
or anything else is going to work.
so whether thistransmission line,
there, I don't know, but it's
than we think and we're going
had great love for Idaho Power
by
that be looking
future isreafize that the
IS
going to
to need
and as
for me, it's about the salmon, but I woufd
we need to
j ust
and
say
forward, be proactive,
coming very quickly and that
we do need some new form of a power line to come into the
community, and whether we bury it and everybody, you
know, brunts that cost or we have power poles, you know,
this is where we need to go, so f'm not speaking in
particular about this particular, you know, this
particular project, but the future, we need to address it
and itrs going to happen far quicker that we think, and
what you're doing right now wouldn't even be implemented25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-5198
EURLONG
PubIic
for a few years
comes forth into
and we need more electricaf energy that
the valley, so anyway, there you go.
for letting me talk.Thanks
questions ?
Welcome.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Are there any
Thank you very much.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMfSSIONER ANDERSON: Tanya Furlong.
TANYA EURLONG,
appeari-ng as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as fol-Iows:
EXAMINATION
o )q
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BY MR. KLEIN:
O Could you state your name and spe1l your
last name and state your address?
A Tanya Furlong, F-u-r*1-o-n-9, 881 East
Ridge Drive in Hailey.
O And are you an fdaho Power customer?
A Yes.
O Pl-ease go ahead.
A Thank you. I'm actually here on behalf of
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) B9o-s198
FURLONG
PubIic
St. Luke's Wood River Medical- Center in
submitting this testimony on behalf of
officer, who could not
Ketchum,
Cody Langbehn, our
be here tonightchief executive
and regrets that.
"Dear Commissioners, I am writing you in
support of Idaho Powerrs plan to construct a redundant
power l-i-ne and rebuild the exlsting l-ine due to its age
and condition. As you can imagine, reliable redundant
power is a critical resource to St. Luke's Wood River
Medica1 Center. Whil-e the hospital does have a backup
generator on site, in the event of power 1oss, thj-s
generator is only abl-e to power a portion of the
organization's electrical needs.
Energy intense equipment such as our MRI
and our CT are not able to be fed by the backup
generator, so these diagnostic tool-s are not avail-abl-e
for our clinicians during power outages. A redundant
power line will help mj-nimize the number of outages
experienced by the hospital and, therefore, reduce the
number of times the above-key services are not available
to our community. "
Thank you on behalf, again, of Cody
Langbehn, our CEO.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. Are
there any questions from the Commission? Parties? Thank25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
BENN]ON
Publ-ic
you very much for coming.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness l-eft the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Shawn Bennion.
SHAWN BENN]ON,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as f ol-lows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLE]N:
O Please state your name, spelI your fast
name, and state your address.
A Shawn Bennion, B-e-n-n-i-o-n. My address
1s 13 River Lane in Carey.
o
A
o
A
here tonight.
been asked to
general manager
town on business
Are you an Idaho Power customer?
Yes.
Pl-ease go ahead.
Al1 right. Thank you very much for being
eIse. f 'veI am also representing someone
come here on behalf of Tim Sllva, the
of Sun Val-ley Company who is also out of
this evening.
The letter reads: "Dear Commissioners, Io
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
BENNION
Public
am writing to
CPCN filed by
transmission
urge you to
Idaho Power
approve the Wood River Valley
Company to build a second
Hailey and Ketchum. Years ofIine between
public involvement through the Citizens Advisory
Committee led to the recommendation to construct an
additional line from Hailey to Ketchum to increase the
reliability of el-ectrical- supply to the 9,100 customers
currentl-y served by a single transmj-ssion line.
While the existing transmission line has
been fairly reliab1e, its age and remote location makes
sol-e reliance on this line an unreasonable risk. As you
may be aware, the prolonged power outage of Christmas
Eve, Christmas Day 2009 was a stark reminder for all of
us in the Wood River Va11ey of how reliant we are on the
integrity of our transmission lines.
Shoul-d our existing single transmission
l-j-ne fail- during weather conditions simil-ar to Christmas
2009, the potential for serj-ous risk to people and
property is very real. In 2009, power was restored to
Sun Vall-ey after L6 to 18 hours, but the impacts would
have been much more significant had it stayed out a
second night. In my opinion, this is a simple matter of
public safety and it is unreasonable to alIow an area
this size to be served Iinaudible], particularly when a
straightforward solution is proposed.o 25
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CHRISTENSEN
Publ-ic
convenience
Silva, vice
Resort. "
Any questions
very much for
Please approve the certificate of public
and necessity before you. Respectfully, Tim
president and general manager of Sun Valley
COMMISSfONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Shawn.
from the Commission? Parties? Thank you
your testimony.
THE WITNESS: Thank you for your time.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Ann Christensen.
ANN CHRISTENSEN,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as fol-Iows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLE]N:
O Would you please state your name, spelling
your last name and state your address?
A Ann Christensen, C-h-r-i-s-t-e-n-s-e-n,
21-2, No. 3, Bitterroot Road in Sun Va11ey.
O Are you an Idaho Power Company customer?
A Yes.
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A First, I have to disagree with something
Tim Sil-va said. I was here living in Ketchum at the time
the 2009 outage. It had nothing to do with the redundant
line or the line between Ketchum and Hailey. It had to
do with what happened before the electrlcity came to
Hailey. Our line has been 99.999 percent reliabfe over
the last 36 years.
Now, what I'm here to testify is that f'm
an environmentalist and I think most of the people in
this room, most of the people who 11ve in this community,
are here because of the environment and I think, first of
aII, we want the beauty retained of our drive into Sun
Valley from Hailey. That's very, very important, but
beyond that, I know that the City of Ketchum is working
towards goals of cl-ean energy, and cl-ean energy is not
the fossil- fuel energy that is almost half of what Idaho
Power Company provides and it provides it from out of
state, whj-ch is another expense, toor so I believe that
we need to start thinking in 2011 terms, not 1913 terms.
Itrs time to know what's happening.
I happen to have 100 percent solar on my
house. It wil-l- produce all- the electricity I need in
that house, which is a four-bedroom house, and plus two
el-ectric cars which we own. One j-s a hybrid and one is
an electric. I do not have to pay Idaho Power. They
CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CHRISTENSEN
Publ-ic
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CHRISTENSEN
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have to pay me right now whatever I wil-l- have to pay
them, but it wil-l- be 100 percent, and it was easily done
on my hil-l-side right opposite my house. My roof had too
many cottonwood trees nearby, so I know that this can be
done.
I know that those panels over there are
offsetting about 20 percent of the el-ectricity that comes
into this building here. I know that the YMCA also has
panels and I know that all of this is happeni-ng. The
price has gone down so much and it's goi-ng to continue to
go down and eventually we're going to have the Tesla roof
panels on top so that you don't even have to replace your
roof. You just protect it with these things, so
everything is changing and it's time for Idaho Power to
admit that and to come along with those changes. It
doesn't make sense that we're ignoring all the
possibilities.
Let me see what el-se I'm supposed to say
forhere. Okay, just the technologies for storage and
minigrids and producing our own electricity rlght
are amazj-ng. I don't know how many of you saw in
Forest Service Park about three weeks dgo, we had
minigrid with batteries connected to solar panels,
showed how it worked and it's amazing that we can
this, so we could produce our own energy, store it
here
the
a
and it
do
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
CHRISTENSEN
Public
these batterj-es, which are getting better and better
time so that if the l-inethe
and
goes
right there and mostly the sun is
we could keep producing probably
I donrt know a1l
working and
cheaper and cheaper al-l-
down between Ketchum and Hailey, there's that electrlcity
shining right here, so
f or quite awhil-e.
the details, but f saw it
exciting and it's the future and
the past and
that's
green and as
I think that's
Thank
it's tlme to
it was quite
think about the future, not
it's time to open our minds to everything
available to us and keep our val-l-ey as
environmentally invi-ting as it is now.
about it. Thank you very much.
COMM] SS]ONER ANDERSON :YOU,
Thank youMs. Christensen. Are there any questions?
very much for your testimony.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: You guys are
testing me here. I'm going to say Mikey Garcia.
THE AUDIENCE: Mickey.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Mickey?
MR. GARCIA: Mickey Garcia. Welcome to
Ketchum. You didn't have to get al-I dressed up.
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
GARCIA
Publ i c
M]CKEY GARCIA,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as f ol-Iows:
EXAMINAT]ON
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Coul-d you please state your full name and
speII your last name?
A My l-ast name is Garci-a, spelled
G-a-r-c-i-a.
O And it's Mick Garcia?
A Itrs Mlck or Mickey Garcia.
O Vfhat's your address?
A My address is 220 North Wood Way,
Apartment No. 323.
O And are you a customer of Idaho Power?
A Yes, I am.
0 Please go ahead.
A Thank you, so therers a major propaganda
war going on here. Some of these green-weenie friends of
mine have been brainwashing themsel-ves.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Mr. Garcia, letrs
be careful- of the parties that are in the room. lVe don't
need to cast any aspersions.25
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THE WITNESS: No aspersions?
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: No aspersions.
THE WITNESS: Thatrs no fun.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: I know it's not so
fun, but we
THE WITNESS: Okay. You know, f don't
know how much technj-caI expertise you guys have, but
those panels over there, those solar panels, they have to
be replaced in, like , 20, 25 years. They lose efflciency
at the rate of one-and-a-hal-f to two percent a year, and
sofar panels create about 300 times, and this isn't false
news, look j-t up if you don't believe me, 300 times the
toxj-c waste that nucfear power does. A lot of these
people have never heard of what I'm saying. You think,
oh, I'm wrong. Go look it up, okay?
When they're disposed of, they do and j-t's
becoming a big problem, so there's no such thing as cfean
power, so I support I support the plan that fdaho
Power has, because I went through that and Irm a rugged
mountain man and so I could survj-ve a lot longer with no
power, but our economy here is based more and more on
high-end people coming expecting high-end services 24/7,
and those towers don't bother me one bit, not one bit.
That's part of the technological price that we have to
pay, okay.
CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
GARCIA
Publ-ic
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
GARCIA
Public
If people are so rich they can
bury them, that I s fine, and so a
bury them,
l-ot ofthey want to
this, those
comi-ng from
government,
things, those
China by the
more than one level of government, so this is
my friends are claiming. frmnot free clean energy l-ike
sorry, it's just not.
When you l-ook at the mining that has to go
on to build those things and when they go in the dump,
like I said, 300 t.imes the toxic waste per kilowatt-hour
of nucl-ear power, okay, so therers a l-ot of brainwashing
going on under the name of whatever resj-lience they're
talking about. f don't know how much you know about the
fiel-d and what's going on around the worl-d. Austral-ia
and Germany and Denmark have electric rates three tj-mes
as high as we do in this valley, three times, and j-t.'s
because they've gotten rid of their nuclear. They tried
to get rid of their coal, but they're bringing it back
because they don't have j-t's not reliable power. The
wind and the sun is not reliable power.
Now, Elon Musk i-s selling batteries and
everybody thinks batteries are so cool, so we're
subsidizing. Government is subsidizing those cars and
those batteries, and as soon as they stop doing that,
people are going to stop buying those cars and those
cheap sol-ar panels that are
way are subsidized by the
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CSB REPORT]NG
(208 ) B9o-5198
GARCIA
PubIic
$100,000. They're
over $100,000 car,
batteries and a lot of those subsidies are going from
poor people to rich people.
Herers a battery, a lithium battery, and
Tesl-a is selling a car that wlfl go 240 miles for over
batteries and in thatpacking
there's almost 7,000 of these
batteries packed together, and to replace that battery,
it's going to cost you 41, $42,000, you know.
Our city council- just recently put in a
battery charging station here at taxpayer expense and
that's a good example of the poor subsidizinq the rich.
I cannot afford a $42,000 battery, I'm sorry. I rode
here on an el-ectric tricycle that I built myself, okay,
and I still- use l-ead-acld batteries because these lithium
batteries are so expensive, so the point of all- this is
some of the -- my "green friends" are going to get us in
the same position as Germany, Denmark, and Austral-ia with
rolling bl-ackouts and real1y high energy prices by
limiting our options, okay, and subsidj-zing these
batteries and these cheap sol-ar panels that are comj-ng
from China, So this is not the wave of the future, so I
want rel-iable power for our economy now and this is an
obstructlonist effort to stop this and I want to see that
stopped.
I want you guys and however much technical
these
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
GARCIA
PubI i c
knowledge you have, whatever, to consider all- that, so we
stil1 have, the United States has, 1,000 years of, or the
worl-d has 1,000 years worth of, fossil- fuel stil-l- in the
ground if you count everything, including the new methane
ice that the Chinese have supposedly flgured out how to
mine off the coast of almost every continent in the
wor1d, so I'm looking into the future and this propaganda
about, oh, I think my friends have been braj-nwashed is
totally ignored. The downside of this "free and cl-ean"
energy
like to
planned
see that line, the
it built as soon as
Thank you.
COMMfSSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr.
Garcia. Any questions from the Commission? Parties?
Thank you.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Sheri Thomas.
is i-t's not f ree and it I s not cl-ean and I would
power l-iner ds Idaho Power had
possible.
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) B9o-s198
THOMAS
Publ-ic
SHER] THOMAS,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Would you state your full- name and speII
your last name and give us your address?
A Sheri Thomas, T-h-o-m-a-s, and I live at
101 Cochise Drive and I am an Idaho Power customer.
Thank you.
O Go ahead.
A I didn't prepare any statement and after
making -- whoa, excuse me, I have to settl-e that one in
my brain first. Irm actua1fy a property manager in this
va11ey, so f'm actually standing before you in a capacity
of numerous ways, one in which the humanity of it all- was
that, you know, we know that we can only rely on death
and taxes and el-ectricity wasn't part of thatr so when
the power went out and as a property manager making sure
was health, safety, welfare, and al-l- was wel-l-, the thing
that I wish to bring
it. In fact, when I
forward is nobody,
told them where the
nobody,
playing
disliked
cards
were, they had the best time ever.25
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CSB REPORTTNG(208) 890-s198
HENDRICKS
Public
Vf,e're a resilient society and I think that
we showed that during our power outage. f al-so think
that no one was inconvenienced. Of course, Lf I was
running a huge resort or hospital, I might have had
backup available, but I wouldn't expect a power line to
provide that, and at this point I rea1Iy do not feel a
redundant l-ine is something worth a necessity in this
valley and I'm appealing to that. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you,
Ms. Thomas. Are there any questions from the Commission?
Parties? Thank you for your testimony.
(The witness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Peter Hendricks.
PETER HENDR]CKS,
appeari-ng as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as foll-ows:
EXAM]NATION
BY MR. KLEIN
O Would you please
and give
your full name,
address ?
state
us yourspe11 your l-ast name,
A My name
H-e-n-d-r-i-c-k-s. I
is Peter Hendricks,
live at 236 Elkhorn Road ln Suno25
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VaIJ-ey.
O Are you an Idaho Power customer?
A Iam.
O Please go ahead.
A Good evening. The City of Sun Va11ey
would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide
comment on the Wood River to Ketchum redundant
transmission l-j-ne project. The proposed line enters the
City of Sun Valley at its southern boundary before
passing through the City of Ketchum to the Ketchum
substation, which is actually located within the Sun
Va11ey City limits.
After several- meetinqs with
representatives from Idaho Power in 201,6 and culminating
with a wel-l-attended community meeting on August 18,
20L6, the city has been thoroughly informed on the
purpose and need as well as the impacts of potential
routing options.
At the regular city council- meeting of
September 1st, 20L6, the council unani-mously agreed on
the fol-lowing project scope and components: One, that
the redundant line project is necessary and vital to our
communlty, which is graphically isolated, has substantj-al-
wildfire risk, relies heavily on tourism during the
winter, and experiences severe winter weather. Though
CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
HENDRICKS
PubI ic
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
HENDRICKS
Public
previous large outage events occurred on sections of
transmission line south of the project area,it is only a
the Woodmatter of time before the poor
River to El-khorn l-ine leads to fail-ures, possibly in our
most vulnerable periods of the year, hampering the
causing property damage due toeconomy and potentially
plumblng freeze-ups.
No. 2, that the best location at which to
underground the l-ine is near the intersection of Highway
15 and Elkhorn Road, because it offers the best
condition of
combination of low project cost and
the combined communities of Ketchum
no additional- increase in rates to
no additional- taxati-on districts or
low visual impacts to
and Sun Va11ey. With
local- ratepayers and
administration requlred, this option
surcharge
is also the easiest
to lmplement.
The City of Sun Vall-ey understands that
this l-ine will- provide the opportunity to eventually
replace the aging and dil-apidated Wood River to El-khorn
Iine, which is al-so important to maj-ntain the reliability
of el-ectrical- power in our community. The city
appreciates the additional capacity of this l-ine. It
will provide for renewabl-e energy, which is sourced from
wj-nd, hydro, and sofar projects outside of the Wood River
Va11ey, but the city woul-d also l-ike to affirm itso25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
THEA
PubIic
positj-on that while the redundant l-ine is necessary in
the short and intermediate term, further study must be
conducted to explore locally generated alternative energy
in the Wood River Va11ey.
The city supports the creation of l-ocal-
solar, wind, and geothermal energy generatj-on, as well as
storage opti-ons. These local projects will help lnsul-ate
our community from further risk of catastrophic outages
and will create l-ocal- jobs and investment. Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you,
Mr. Hendricks. Any questj-ons? Thank you very much for
your testimony.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The wltness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSONz Kaz Thea.
KAZ THEA,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLETN:
O Would you please state your name and spell
addre s s ?your l-ast name and give us youra25
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A Kaz Thea, T-h-e-a, 1630 Heroic Road in
Hailey. I am a ratepayer.
O Go ahead.
A I have been for 25 years and I'm a proud
owner of a couple sol-ar panels on my house as weIl.
Thanks for the opportunity to al-l-ow us to comment. I
made so many other marks on my page that I hope I don't
get confused with what I rea1Iy want to say. I am
against the redundant transmission line. I stand in
agreement with Blaine County P&Zrs denial of a
conditional use permit for the following reasons: I'm in
agreement with fdaho PUC Staff who testified that
sufficient need for a second l-ine has not been
demonstrated by Idaho Power Company and this 1s
irrespective of whether you're for afternative energy or
you don't like the unsightliness of the power l-ines.
They just have not demonstrated the need.
Idaho Power has not provided an adequate
review of rel-evant costs and alternati-ves such as
providing innovative renewable alternatives and
sustainable energy, power, wind, geothermal. Redundancy
does not increase power grid resiliency. This woul-d
however be done with an al-ternati-ve. This second line
would have done nothing to mitigate our infamous power
outage in 2009 on December 24th and I, too, thoroughly
CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
THEA
PubI i c
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
THEA
PubIic
enjoyed. ft was great
especially on Christmas
Steel
reasonable upgrade at
mitigate some of the
the ol-d wooden poles
not to have video games,
morning or Christmas Eve.
poles wou1d,
a much lower
issues we face in
vulnerable to fire
on the other hand, be a
cost
right now at
biologist.
habitat for
wel-l- versed
sustainable
great to be
this time.
I've done a
wildl-if e.
in subjects
habitat here
I'm actually a
lot of work in
f've taught fire
and woul-d help to
this va1Iey that
might provide us
wildlife
the area for
ecology and I'm
to meet requirements
for Hail-ey residents
of renewable,you know,
and it would bein the valley
some voice like I have tonight.
l_s
cost of undergroundj-ng the line
pret.ty unreasonable, especially
stil-l- have to bear the brunt ofwho
gr_ven
The high
this cost and have above-ground power lines. How about
the use of the temporary line to provide power while you
upgrade and rebuild the existing line, and Kerrin had a
really fancy
The temporary
name for it. f can't remember that name.
11ne would cost around $9 million compared
to about 32 mil-l-ion for a new redundant l-ine and, of
think this iscourse, ratepayers wil-l- bear the cost and I
pretty unreasonabl-e.
P&Z voted overwhelmingly against issulng
permits to Idaho Power and I urge the Blaine CountyO25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
THEA
Public
Commission, I don't know if they're here, to vote against
this project and the PUC to reject the proposaf. A11 the
options must be on the tabl-e for Bl-aine County
Commissioners to determine the best alternative.
Currently, there is insufficlent analysis to consider the
cost and effectiveness of a redundant line and, you know,
talki-ng about
us sol-utions
you're
not get
invest in afternative
you for the
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Ms.
why not use some of the money that
for this redundant line that woul-d
that we're really looking for and
sources of energy.
Thank you and thank
opportunity for me to comment.
Thea. Are there any quest j-ons
Partj-es? Thank you very much
(The witness feft
from the Commission?
for your testlmony.
the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Len Harlig?
MR. HARLIG: HarIig.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Welcome.
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CSB REPORTTNG(208) 890-s198
HARL]G
Public
LEN HARLIG,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
a Wou1d you please state your ful-l- name,
spe1I your last name, and give us your address, please?
A Len Harlig, H-a-r-1-i-9, 13366 State
Highway 75 and I am a customer.
0 Go ahead.
A Thank you very much for coming al-l- this
way to hear our community. As you have heard, we have a
variety of opinions about things in our community and a
variety of ways of statlng them. f'm one of those deeply
manipulated community advisory council members. I was
part of the 1995 CAC and I was part of the 2007 to 2076
CAC. I wasn't sure that I wanted to say anything
tonight,
hillside
because T'm al-so one
ordinance, our scenic
of the authors of our local
other environmentally sensitive
corridor, and a number of
and community-orient ed
polici-es and ordinances that Blaine County has become
famous for, or in some cases j-nfamous for, but the bottom
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up here so far and pointed out the potential- risks of not
having power to a community like ours, which is so
dependent on it, but I am also completely sympathetic to
those people that say this is going to be a major visual-
intrusion into our scenj-c corridor, and it goes against
everything I have worked for all- these years on behalf of
this community, so I have some real concerns.
Those folks who are asking that we l-ook to
the future have al-so pointed out that that future is
here, that there are alternatives that are available.
There are cities around the world that have already gone
off the electric grid and they're supplying their own
Iocal energy and I don't think that that's posslble for
us in the near term here. Our load demand in the
wintertime is just too heavy for it to covered by
short-term energy efficiencies that might come from solar
and battery power, so I have sat on your side of the
table for 40 years in my community listening to my
community tell me what I should do, what we should do,
what they should do, so I have a great deal of sympathy
for what you are going to have to hear from our community
and from others and I donrt have any advice.
The one thing that I woul-d advise is that
you sort of put the fringe comments to the side and not
focus on the animosity or on the criticism of Idaho Power
CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
HARLIG
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
HARLIG (Com)
Public
as a Company, but that
what you're hearing is
been expressed in what
way of doing it, so I
I think you've heard
the j-ssue, and you' re
technical information
you take into
heartfelt even
I would call a
donrt really have
voluminous
consideration that
if it may not have
level playing field
anything to add.
both sldes offrom our community,
going to be looking at the
that has been supplied by the
intervenors and I think much of it is worth looking dt,
and I have tried to follow it as closely as I can,
and I don't want to bealthough 1t's very
voluminous, so I'm
this way and if you
answer them.
gor_ng
have
to say thank you for coming all
any questions, f'm happy to
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you very
much, Mr. Harlig. Any questions?
COMMISSIONER RAPER: Just rea11y quick.
COMMISS]ONER ANDERSON: Yes.
EXAMINATION
BY COMMISSIONER RAPER:
O Thank you for
You made a comment
I just have a
beginni-ng aboutquestion.
you're one
coming.
at the
quick
how
of the mis1ed advisory members. I am curious
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
HARLIG (Com)
Publ-ic
that was sarcasm or whether you rea11y felt misl-ed from
being on those committees.
A Sure. You have
session, the latest community
session, from January of 2001
to realize that we were in
a l-ot of information from Idaho
committee was in
way through 2016.
Power and from
advisory
all- the
We got
other folks as wel-l and it was a littl-e sarcastic. f 'm
sorry, I didn't want to say it that wdy, but we were
characterized as being dupes or being victimized by Idaho
Power, and although Idaho Power had a number of
requirements that they had to meet, they provi-ded us with
a tremendous amount of information and that information
changed
of that
from 2001 to 2076, so we got the benefit of much
changed j-nformation and we did not as a group
donrt feeland I don't want to sound defensive, because I
defensive, but the members, there were 19 members of the
committee and we asked pertJ-nent quest j-ons.
We did not accept the fj-rst round of
information that we were provided. We required that
somebody tel-l- us what the alternatives were, what the
costs were and so it isnrt as
Ied to the sheering. We may
information in 2007 which is
though we were sheep being
have not had all the
avail-able in 2016, and I
I have evol-vedthink you can telf
from that original
from my testimony
2001 information
that
and more willing too25
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ROBL]N
Publ-ic
l-ook at alternatj-ves today.
COMMISSIONER RAPER: Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Any questions of
the parti-es? Thank you, Mr. Harlig.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Sabrina Robl-in.
SABRINA ROBLIN,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as fol-Iows:
THE WITNESS: My name is Sabrina Roblin,
R-o-b-1-i-n, and I'm a resident of Hailey. I l-ive at 477
Mother Lode Loop and I am an Idaho Power customer.
MR. KLEIN: Go ahead. Thank you.
THE WITNESS: A11 right; so I really
appreciate everybody coming out tonight. I think this is
a realIy important issue for the community and I think
it's really important to stay focused on what is the
goaI, what are the needs, and I understand the hospital,
the City of Sun Va11ey, and the other major group that
was here speaking about the need for refiabl-e energy. We
do need reliabl-e energy in this vaIIey, and from what
I've studied and heard tonight, this project before us is
not what's needed in order to do what needs to be done.o 25
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ROBLIN
Publ i c
We can do it for a lot l-ess money. It's
been made cfear that this l-ine has been re]iable and it
does need to be rebuilt and it can be done for a l-ot less
money, so
other big
satis fied
also satisfies
a project
the needs
the economic benefit of
Va1ley, and the
power can be
that costs a lot less money and
of this community and is part of
this community that is beautiful,
to come up with a so1ution that
of this corridor and what we have
the hospital, the City of Sun
stakeholders and the need for
with
so it's real1y important
does not mar the beauty
here.
To get down to me personally, where I
live, I back right up on to the power corridor there, the
bike path, and someone talked about EMF toxicity, which
has been scientifically proven, it could reduce the value
of my home and all the homes along the corridor and
affect the well-being of the peop1e who l-ive in those
homes, including me, so I have concerns about the value
overall, the money, the costs, and I think for what is
needed a different and better solution is needed, so I'm
glad the Planning & Zoning voted no for this previously.
I hope that you will vote no for it again and come up
with a sol-ution that satisfies the globaI needs that are
presented in front of us today. We know that technology
is here.25
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CSB REPORTING
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ROBLIN
Pubfic
that are in front
pro j ect, so l-et' s
to say.
One thing I forgot to mention, f worked
for Pacific Gas & Electric Company in Calj-fornia and Irve
worked in alternative energy, so I know what some of the
al-ternatives are and I know what some of the challenges
are and I know that there are other opportunities that
coul-d be taken for less money to satisfy all the needs
of us right now in this valIey for this
see if there's anything else I wanted
I appreciate the challenge and the
difficulty that you're in right now. You have so many
different stakeholders with, you know, different requests
and I just ask that you vote no on this. You do more
research. You hold the creative attention, which is so
hard to hol-d in a project l-ike this when there are people
who want an answer now, so please hold that creative
attention. Look to the future. Look to all- the needs we
have in front of us. Say no to this and look for a
better solution.
Thank you very much, appreciate it.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Ms.
Roblin. Any questions from the Commission? Parties?
Thank you again.
(The witness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: DT Henry.25
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HENRY
Publ-ic
DANIEL HENRY,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as f oll-ows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
spell your
O Woul-d you please state your ful-l- name,
l-ast name, and give us your address?
A Daniel Henry, H-e-n-r-y, 308 North 2nd,
Hailey.
O You're an Idaho Power customer?
A Yes.
O Pl-ease go ahead.
A What I woul-d like
redundant lj-ne, per s€r but the
on behalf of most of America on
to address is not the
ignorance
grid
almost complete
the total- power
going down potential- that u/e're facing, and I would like
to just rhetorically ask the Commission whether or not
they had heard and/or read books by Ted Copple,
Wil-liam --
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Mr. Henry, werre
not here to answer any questions whatsoever. We're here
to take public
THE WITNESS: Okay, the issue at hand iso25
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that your real problem is going to be l-oss of the total
power grid. The Presidential- executive order of
President Obama on October 13th tol-d America it needs to
be prepared for l-oss of the entire power grid. You are
talking about not a 12-mil-e l-ine or 1,4 or however many
miles of a movement of power from Hailey to Ketchum.
You're talking about the Midpoint transformer station
being more than 1ikely one of the top nine. It was
wrj-tten up in the WaLL Street JournaJ- back in 2014 that
if any of these top nine primary power transformer
stations go down, there is a hiqh likelihood the entire
system could cascade.
I have briefed many of our state
Iegislators, several of the Governor's primary staff. I
will- make it available, my time available, to brief the
Sierra Club or anyone el-se who wants to listen to thls.
There's a l-ot of information out there. They are
anticipating, the Congressional- EMP Commission is
anticipating, up to, granted thatrs up to, loss of 90
percent of the American population, it is referred to in
the Wal-L Street Journaf articl-er ds perishing within 365
days of loss of power. The existence of alternative
energy and mj-crogrid, and you were talking about minigrid
capabilitj-es, is more than Iike1y the best use of
thought, time, energy, and money for any community in the
CSB REPORTING
(208 ) B9o-s198
HENRY
Public
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
HENRY
PubIic
enti-re United States. ftrs not just the United States,
of course. ft's part of the
gr_ven
way to
COMMISS]ONER ANDERSON :
you some leeway here. f want you
segue this into
Mr. Henry, I've
to try to find a
THE WITNESS: Okay, fine. I suggest it's
not a di-scussion of a redundant line. You should invest
the money, the time, and energy and I make myself
avail-able to yourselves just as much as I have the
Governor's staff, and that incl-udes John Chatburn, energy
assurance, and three Idaho Power representatives. I've
been at a county commissioner's meeting and they had no
answers to questions that were raised when the Homeland
Security briefer made a presentation. There's an awful-
Iot. I won't take up your time.
I would like to generate questions and I
suggest that these books are avallable at the Ketchum
Lj-brary and Hailey Library, and maybe some of you already
know them, that you take this seriously and start
investigating yourselves. ft's more than redundant and
j-t's more than resiliency. It's going to come down to
decentralization and the times that we're facing right
now poIiticaI1y, strategically, they look as bad as it's
ever looked. Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Mr. Henry, we doo25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
GEORGE
Public
appreciate you coming out and giving us your thoughts on
this, w€ certainly do, but we have severa1 people that
need to talk and we need to focus on their opinions of
this matter before us.
THE WITNESS: Thatrs fine. My telephone
number for those who woul-d like to contact me i-s
127-1655.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Are there any
questions? Thank you again.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Mark George.
MARK GEORGE,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAM]NATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Would you state your name
Iast name and give us your
A Mark George,
Drive, Ketchum, and Irm an
years.
address, too,
G-e-o-r-g-e,
and spel-1 your
please ?
2L4 Cottonwood
Idaho Power customer for 21
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CSB REPORTING(208) B9o-s198
GEORGE
Pubfic
O Thank you.
A Science has proven that diversity is the
most i-mportant aspect of any thriving and survi-ving
community and diversity in power source and power
transmission, and I think some of what was just mentioned
with the grid being probably the single greatest threat
to us and community power cl-ose to communities being
technol-ogy that possibly your funds coul-d be j-nvested in
with a greater visj-on for the future.
I think as a Company, any surviving
company, you'd want to l-ook at progress and you'd want to
Iook down the road as an energy supplier. If it were my
company,
I woul-d
energy that
rebuild the
$9 miIIion,
funds. You
I wouldn't care what sort of energy T
l-ook at my baseline
is sustainabl-e
business as one who
suppli-ed.
supplies
If you can
6, J, B,
for the long term.
current power line for whether it's
to me,
could
that seems l-ike a much wiser use of
then take the bafance of those funds
and strengthen the community grid or strengthen the grid
outside the community.
You need to look at your funds as a means
of energy to provide all of us with energy. I woul-d just
suggest that you look down the road, play the long game.
The al-ternatives are right in front of us. Much of
what's been said here about countries, Norway, France,o 25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
GEORGE
Public
some of the largest asset managers in the world are
giving you the evidence, so I rm not sure what research
you're reading, but it's not the research that Irm
reading, and I woul-d just suggest that you look at
progress as an energy suppJ-ier and not be attached to the
old ways, because that's how you will- survive as a
Company and provide the service to us that we have been
paying you for for so, so Iong.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr.
George. Are there any questions from the Commission?
Thank you.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness l-eft the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: John Galago?
MR. GALGANO: Galgano.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, I'm
sorry.
MR. GALGANO: No worries.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: I think it's just
the writing I couldnrt make out.
MR. GALGANO: G-a-l--g-a-n-o.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thanks.
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CSB REPORT]NG
(208 ) 890-5198
GALGANO
Public
JOHNNY GALGANO,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
THE WITNESS: Johnny Galgano, 180 Cloverly
Lane.
EXAMINAT]ON
BY MR. KLEIN:
providing
tonight,
correct?
thanks for coming
say. Appreciate
come hear us, so
Anyway,
we have todown and
that you
basically
l-istening to
take time out
a Can you spell that again?
A G-a-1-g-a-n-o.
O And youfre an Idaho Power customer?
A Since 1983.
0 Pl-ease go ahead.
A I want to thank the Sierra Club for
me with these notesr so from what Irve heard
thank you very much, Mr. Anderson,' is that
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Yes.
THE WITNESS: A-n-d-e-r-s-o-n.
what
from what I've
your day to
read and what
ways to do
of
I've heard and what I've seen, there's twooLJ
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
things. There's the
I would caution you
decision, you do it
aga j-n.
no demand
right
to make
way and then there I s
sure that when you
the right way and we don't
again, so
do make a
do it
Commission
Now, according to the Sj-erra C1ub, your
has already identified the fact that there is
for this l-ine. It doesn't provide a backup.
a redundant. It's also on the same line as theItrs just
main Iine,so if one l-ine was to go down, ds I understand
it, both l-ines go down. Therers not the right way to do
thingsr so with that in mind, I woul-d suggest, again,
information on1y, that you careful-l-y consider other
opportunities, other avenues to go forward with.
I personally built a house last year and
put in a 9.L kW system on my roof so that f have an
alternative form of energy. I'm al-so putting in a
natural gas backup generator in the un1ike1y event of a
disruption of power.
Now, if Idaho Power Company wanted to look
at an alternative, they coul-d possibly provide 5,000
homes with a 20 kW natural gas backup generator for the
same 30 million that you want to put into building a
redundant line on the same poles where the main line is.
That's not the right way to do things. That just leads
to doing things again, so with that mi-nd, I'll keep myo25
63 GALGANO
Publ-ic
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CSB REPORT]NG
(208 ) 890-s198
GALGANO
Public
comments short.
Thank you very much for
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
your
Thank
time.
THE WITNESS:
and I don't want to be rude,
get out of here, so I'm just
f appreciate you
but it's late.
you.
coming up
I need to
going to go.
ThankCOMM]SS]ONER ANDERSON :you
THE WITNESS: Thank you,
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
mispronouncing your name.
THE WITNESS: They call
around here for that reason.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :
from here on out.
Mr. Anderson.
Sorry about
me Johnny G.
You're Johnny G
(The witness l-eft the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: At this time I
think we're going to take a 10-minute break just so we
can stretch our legs a little bit
so 10 minutes, we'11 be back here
(Recess. )
and use the rest room,
at 20 minutes to 9:00.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Next on our list
is Kj-ngsley Murphy.
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MURPHY
Publ i c
KINGSLEY MURPHY,
appearing as a public wj-tness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as f ol-Iows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
name and give
A
M-u-r-p-h-y.
o
A
responslble
O Please go ahead.
A I guess what I'd l-ike to address is
there's lots of different issues here, so I just want to
focus on basically two. One would be a distributed
generation and two would be sort of a fiduciary
responsibility, and the fiduciary responsibillty, I
understand Idaho Power's fiduciary responsibility in the
sense that their objective in many ways is to add book
value to their sharehol-ders, so by adding a $30 million
line at the expense of ratepayers adds book value to
their corporation and then at the annual meeting things
O Please state your name and spel1 your last
us your address.
Kingsley Murphy. Last name is
My address is 1-66 Barl-ow Road, Ketchum.
And yourre an Idaho Power customer?
I am. I actually represent or are
for 45 meters.
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l-ook good, so that's their fiduciary responsibility.
I guess f rom the PUC's f iducj-ary
responsibility, theirs is to look after the public and to
make sure that Idaho Power spends their money in an
efficient and sort of positive way for those customers,
and that's where I guess I get into the distributed
generation, so as has kind of been mentioned here before,
if you take what has been advocated by the past CIA
directors, NSA directors, Homeland security directors is
that the natj-onal power grid is at severe risk and that
it would behoove national security if individual, and
especially smaIler, communities, but al-so bigger
communities, try to figure out a way to generate power
locally whereby they can separate themselves from the
national- grid during a national- event, you know, where
then they could produce some power, if maybe not all the
power they need, in those l-ocal areas, so the ex-CIA
director James Woosley, he was actually here and he spoke
and one of the things he said was that the national grid
is the greatest risk that we have from terrorism and I
think he made a very interesting point.
He said, "If you have zero power, you are
in the 14th century. If you have 20 or 30 percent power,
you're basically in the 2tst century," and if we took
that same $30 million and spent that here in this
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MURPHY
Public
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MURPHY
Public
community to generate some
correct, we would not have
l-ocal- power, you're qulte
100 percent power to replace
or 30 percent power. We
coul-d survive, and at
something, but
would stil-l- be
we would have 20
a community that
this point since we already have a transmission line that
brings up somewhere around 70 percent of the power we
need and a I mean a distribution l-ine that comes up
the highway that gives us 10 percent and a transmj-ssion
1ine, you know, we woul-d be in pretty good shape more
than Iikely if one of those l-ines went down and, again,
as to the hospital's comment, that would be something
that woul-d help serve them, because during the Christmas
outage, that power outage would not have been prevented
by this line; whereas, if we had power that could be
produced here in an event, that would have helped the
hospital, So that woul-d actually be more proactive for
them.
And I guess just to fol-l-ow up on some of
this, the NSA Director Admiral- Michael- Rogers said that
China and one or two other nations already have the
ability to crash our grids. The Department of Home1and
Security has official-1y told energy firm executives that
ISIS is beginning to perpetrate cyber attacks to the
grids. Richard C1arke, who was 30 years in national
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Public
advocates strongly for a distributed generation system.
He says it's common sense for communities to protect
themsel-ves by having themselves sort of off the national
grid if they need to be, and he describes it very wel-l- in
one of his l-ater books, Cyber hlar, and he goes into
pretty good detail of how instantl-y we coul-d be in a bad
wdy, so I guess a big part for us in this community is we
are a tourist town. Our view corridor is our asset, so
not only are we paying for something, we're forfeiting an
asset that we have for that, and I just think that Idaho
Power does a great job at many things. They're very
creative and I think they can figure out a way to make
this a model- community for not only Idaho, but for the
rest of the nation.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr.
Murphy. Any questions from the Commission? Parties?
Thank you for your testimony.
THE WITNESS: Thanks.
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Scott
MR. RUNKEL: Runkel- .
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: -- Runkel, thank
you.
MR. RUNKEL: Sure. I dldn't real-ize youo25
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RUNKEL
Publlc
were going to have to read 1t.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Eeel free to
vofunteer your last name when I stumble.
SCOTT RUNKEL,
appearing as a public witness,
sworn, testlf ied as fol-Iows:
having been first duly
THE WITNESS: Scott Runkel. ft's
R-u-n-k*e-l- and I l-ive at 1610 Northridge Drive in Hailey
and I am Idaho Power customer. In one sense I donrt envy
you, but
think you
in the second sense I do envy you, because I
have the opportunity to reaI1y l-ook to the
with a solution that Idaho and the
can look for as a way to solve some
future and
rest of the
come up
country
of our probl-ems using new solutions, and my fear is that
we're going to solve a problem that we haven't
experienced yet with the technology that. we don't need
when there's so many exciting opportunities out there,
whether it's microgrid or just utilizrng efficiency, and
f rm a teacher and I always tal-k to my students about
looking at everything and coming into a problem with an
open mind, and what I want to know as an fdaho Power
consumer and a resident of this va1Iey to know that
happened, that everything was consi-dered and not just theo25
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RUNKEL
Publ-ic
way things have always been done
view corridor and we've l-ooked at the needs, everyone in
that is made is madethe va11ey, and the final decision
with ful1 information and, you know, I can't believe that
there isn't a sol-ution out there that makes more people
thishappy than
redundant
the existing solution that's proposed,
power l-ine, and a sol-ut.ion out there that is
better, that provides more what our community needs at
]ooks towards theperhaps
future.
even a cheaper price and
And I guess what I hope for is that the
final decision that is communicated to me that I feel
really that it's been done we1l, that it's a decision
that has been made not just by talking to Idaho Power
representatives, which I have a lot of respect for what
they do and provide us with unbelj-evable reliable energy,
but I also want people who are working in the latest
technology and are solving problems using different
sol-utions to make sure and see if perhaps those are right
for us, because I think if we do that, we might come up
with a better solution that meets more of the needs of
our community, so thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :Thank you, Mr.
and we've ]ooked at the
Runkel. Are there any questions from the
Parties? Thank you for your testimony.
Commission?
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CSB REPORTTNG(208) 890-s198
GRIFFITH
Public
(The witness left the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Harry Griffith.
HARRY GRIFFITH,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testif ied as fol-l-ows:
EXAM]NATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Please state your name, spe11 your last
name, and give us your address.
A Harry Griffith, G-r-i-f-f-i-t-h, 104
Sagewillow, Sun Va11ey.
O You're an Idaho Power customer?
A Yes, I am.
O Please go ahead.
A Okay, I'm here representing Sun Valley
Economic Development, which is a public-private
partnership that tries to expand the economj-c diversity
and vitality of the entire economy of Blaine County. We
do about a $2 billion economy here. Our organization is
representative of about 180 busj-ness members of the
community ranging from the 10 largest employers down to
individual retailers or restaurateurs.o 25
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CSB REPORT]NG
(208 ) 890-5198
GRIFFITH
PubIic
The vast majority of our membership
community has expressed their concern with power
interruption and is looking for a solution that wil-l
improve the resilience and the redundancy of supplying
power to
something
The risk
our community.
that werve been talking about
is around the corner. With the
We believe that this is
for a long time.
tourism base and
the economic activity we have, dfly future faj-lures, be
they 24 hours or 24 days or 24 months, could be
catastrophic, so anything we can do to improve the
infrastructure through the right kind of i-nvestment, our
membership belleves that it makes a l-ot of sense to try
to progress with that as fast as we can.
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr.
Griffith. Any questions? Thank you for your testimony.
(The witness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: James
MR. ROSENEELD: Rosenfeld.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. I
think this turned into a sign-in sheet with signatures
instead of -- wel-come.
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CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
ROSENFELD
Public
JAMES ROSENFELD,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
THE WITNESS: My name is James Rosenfel-d.
f've been in the va11ey since ' 68, ' 69.
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLE]N:
O Pl-ease spell your last name.
A ft's R-o-s-e-n-f-e-1-d.
0 Glve us your address.
A 138 Valleywood Drive.
O And yourre an Idaho Power customer?
A I am and I also have a commercial- buildlng
as well- that I pay the power on, and I'II get right to
that. f've actually decided to sign a contract with a
photovoltaic servj-ce here }oca11y to put in an 8.4 kW
system on my roofl-ine and it's going to make my building
net zero and al-so provide enough energy left over to
drive one el-ectric vehicle 10,000 miles in one yearr So
I'm pretty excited.
I'11- try to be as short as I can. f think
this power line business is, I think it's beingo25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-5198
ROSENFELD
Public
overstated. I think that the repaj-rs can be made for the
6 or $8 million that's been talked about and I think this
val1ey can fare just fine with that. I think $30 million
is a tough nut to crack for the residents here for a l-ot
of us and as a ratepayer two times over/ I rea11y don't
want to see my service charges or my fees go up that much
more, and they shouldn't, because I'm starting to make
the transition to so1ar, and with the battery technology
that's coming a1ong, I can't even keep up with it, but
I'm full-y convinced that within five years we're going to
start seeing a Iot of el-ectric vehicles comi-ng into town
and I coul-d see my lot becomlng nothing but solar panels
as a parking Iot, maybe. I don't know.
We'lI see what the demand is and how it
unfolds, but the point I want to make is I think that we
do need a good sol-id line in
poles
When
been tossed
it's really
sounds to me
and the existing
you start getting
right
into
around a l-ot and
here and f think the steel-
of way make perfect sense.
redundancy, that term has
I kind of I don't think
redundant from what I've heard tonight. ft
like it's redundant from Hailey north or
know,
didn't
from
say I
some point
a lot of
down south up
the discussion
come prepared, so frm
think that the 6 to $B
to the vaIIey, so, you
and I could go oD, but I
going to wrap it up and 3ust
milfion repair of theo25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
SLANETZ
Publ1c
existing line makes perfect sense and to go do a
redundant l-ine in the corridor makes littl-e, you know,
aesthetic or economic sense.
I mean, this place is really beautiful
because of the corridor and when you drive into this
va11ey, you're awestruck. I mean, every time I come back
in here, it's like whoa, and that's al-l- I have to say.
Thank you for your patience and for coming.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. Any
questions, Commission? Partles? Thank you again.
(The witness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Okay, Jim --
MR. SLANETZ: Sl-anetz.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: -- Sl-anetz. You
wrote 1t slanted.
JIM SLANETZ,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Eul-l- name, speJ-l your last name, and give
us your address, please.25
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CSB REPORTING(20e) 890-s198
SLANETZ
Publ-ic
-n
A
u
A
S-I-a-n-e-L-2, 691 1st Avenue, Ketchum.
You're an Idaho Power customer?
Yes, I am.
Please go ahead.
I agree that also diversification and
decentrafi zation of
Resiliency
don't know
power is
and best
exactly
our best
practices
what they
option for our
are changing
are, because Itm
lot of smart people
future.
dai1y. I
not totally tuned in, but there are a
out there that are, but I feel- that Idaho Power doesn't
have an interest really in keeping up necessarily with
the best practice, because business as usuaf is good for
them right now and diversification and decentral-ization
doesn't necessarily work in their favor, so that said.
My main things, I do think the power lines
that exist right now have been there for 35 years and I
think the best sol-ution is to upgrade them with metal
po1es. I don't think -- Irve never gotten a good answer
from Idaho Power on the cost for this and looking deeply
into this. It solves a lot of problems. I've wal-ked
that line before. I don't know if you guys have ever
been out there. It's mostly sagebrush. There's not a
1ot of big trees. Fire is not a huge issue. Avalanches
are mini-mal- because there I s been no avalanches in 35
years out there that have taken the power lines.o 25
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The present location has been actually
pretty successful, so I think keeping them in that spot
and upgrading them. I'm not sayj-ng they don't need
upgrading. Everything needs to be upgraded, but put in
metal po1es. Possibly leave the wood poles next to it
while you're doing it. Irm not the expert on it, but it
seems to me right now that's working great, you know,
99.99 percent rate without fail-ure and put in higher-end
poles and go with that.
I liked the point that Kingsley Murphy
made that if we have zero power/ we're pretty much out of
l-uck. If we have 30 percent power, yeah, maybe they're
not going to run the lifts on Ba1dy. You know, we hike
for our runs that week, but if we have enough to keep our
pipes unfrozen and a little bit of light on and emergency
services, the hospital definitely. You know, I heard
their point having them have a stronger backup.
Obviously, that's a rea11y important thing, emergency
services in a hospital, and that's actually a much realer
sense of security than I think the false sense of
security we get out of having a secondary 1ine, a
redundant line, because it is redundant. It's the same
power.
If you're looking at grids spread out
across the country and whatnot, if we have a big failure,
CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
SLANETZ
Pubf ic
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
SLANETZ (Com)
PubIic
we have a catastrophic fail-ure. If we have a 1ocal
system of providing maybe 30 percent of what we need, we
can wait for the power to come back up. We're not going
to fail. Things will survive. People have wood stoves.
We can all live in one house and keep things going.
Yeah, it's not going to be vacationland, but we'11- make
it and I'm not sure, like I said, I think it goes to a
fal-se sense of security, so basical-l-y my point is work on
the l-j-ne we have, upgrade it, and diversification and
decentralization of our power sources.
Thanks.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr.
Slanetz. Quick question. Commissioner Raper.
EXAM]NATION
BY COMMISSIONER RAPER:
Didn't you say earlier that you were on aO
city counci1?
A
o
A
I am on the city council-.
Which city?
Ketchum.
COMMISSIONER RAPER: Ketchum City Council.
Thank you. I just wanted to reflect it in my notes.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Aimee Christensen.o 25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CHR]STENSEN
Public
AIMEE CHRISTENSEN,
appearing as a public witness,
sworn, testified as follows:
having been first duly
BY MR. KLE]N:
oY
name and give
A
212 Bitterroot
EXAMINATION
Pl-ease state your name and spell your last
us your address.
Aimee Christensen, C-h-r-i-s-t-e-n-s-e-n,
Road, No. 3, Sun Val1ey, and f am an fdaho
Power customer.
O Thanks.
A Thank you very much for coming here and
havi-ng us to hear from the community. I think it's
reaI1y important. I am an energy and environmental-
attorney by training and currently f lead a Ketchum-based
globa1 consultlng flrm and a non-profit organizatj-on.
Over the last 20 plus years, I worked for corporations
and governments as wel-1 as non-profits, including Duke
Energy, Google, Mi-crosoft, and the United States
Department of Energy and as an attorney for Baker &
McKenzie.
From 2006 to 2007 , I guided Google's
electric transportation and vehicle to grid initiative,o 25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CHRTSTENSEN
Public
RechargeIT, which showed the worl-d an integrated power
and transportation system, and at the US Department of
Energy, I spent four years helping to open up overseas
markets to American clean energy technologies to benefit
economic development and address cl-imate change. Seven
years ago I moved back to Blaine County and have
dedicated a significant portion of my time to help build
greater 1oca1 energy resili-ence to reduce the economic
reliability and envj-ronmental- risks our community 1s
facing from our energy system.
I served as founding chair and am
currentl-y vice chair of the City of Ketchum's Energy
Advisory Committee. From 2014 to 2016, I served actively
as a member of Idaho Power's Wood River Renewable Energy
Worklng Group. In 201,5, I founded the Sun Val1ey
Institute to work to shift the risks facing our
communj-ty, including from our existing energy system into
opportunities to strengthen our economy, diversify, and
lncrease the quality of our jobs, while protecting and
enhancing the natural resource assets that underpin our
local- quality of life and prosperity of our community.
My
and
interest here is to ensure that for
the community,
decision about whether to approve this ratepayer
fairly informed asinvestment, that the decisions are as
for the Publ-ic Utilities Commission's
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CHRISTENSEN
PubIic
possible. I spent l-5 years in Washington D.C. and
participated in and observed policy making and am an
ardent advocate for fairly evaluated, informed decisions
that seek the highest public benefit for the greatest
number of people.
We've heard about reliabil-ity and although
an outage that is short can be fun, I was here, and I'm
fortunate that it was fun and it was short enough, but a
longer one could be harmful and costly to people's health
and our economy. To me the question is how we get there.
Is a 30 million plus and 7O-year asset, a transmission
Iine, the right route?
A bit of background on 1ocal efforts so
you
i-n
20].5,
desire
risks,
understand what we're doing IocaI1y and where we are
our efforts to support greater energy resil-ience. In
in recognition of local energy resilience rlsks and
and capaclty to innovate in addressing those
the City of Ketchum was chosen to send a team to
the very competitive Rocky Mountain Instituters
Electricity
City, Idaho
carried out
resilience
Innovation Lab where our team included the
Power, Sun Valley Company, and NRG.
a collaborative process to eval-uate
strategies for our community. Out of
things we agreed madeprocess, one of the first
move toward more energy resilience, was already
There we
energy
that
sense to
costo25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CHRISTENSEN
Publ1c
effective for home and business owners, was distributed
so1ar.
megawatts or 65 megawatts, given land avail-abi1ity, it is
clear sofar can play a key role for our l-ocal- energy
needs. From therer we can move towards integrated
storage, consideration of biomass, geothermal, and other
loca1 options. Simul-taneously, we would engage critical
load operators, l-ike the cities and the hospital, to help
them identify on-site solutions to ensure their
operations regardless of the grid.
To accel-erate solar adoption, last year
our local community launched SolarizeBlaine, installing
five times the sol-ar installed the previous year, driving
a million doJ-J-ars of new private investment into our
economy, saving home and business owners money on their
power blll-s, and creating new clean
showed
power.
This yearr we
recent RevUp
electric cars
cars cost to
Idaho
that rooftops
Whether you
Power's analysis af ter that l-ab
alone coul-d provide 22
consider our peak load
Blaine el-ectric vehicl-e adoptlon
here in Idaho cost one-third of
megawatts of
is 45
The
campaign,
what gas
sol-ar market here is up and running.
energy jobs.
Our local-
installers are working hard to keep up with the demand.
col-l-aborated with Idaho Power both on the
operate, and we al-so partnered with Idaho25
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Power and the Idaho Nationa1 Laboratory on building a
local- digital energy blueprint. This is in process and
the goal is to understand our energy infrastructure,
loads, and operations, to inform future investments for
l-ocal- energy resil-ience. This is a project model-ed on
one by Idaho National Lab with Idaho Eal1s and Idaho
Fall-s Power, and we look forward to its potential- to
benefit our community's future.
We al-so look forward to continuing to work
on our energy resilience through local- efforts. I
bel-ieve that today's conversation is not just about
energy, but has important implications for the future of
our prosperity, and I'm speaking from my global- and l-ocal
experlences as well as in my personal capacity to be
cIear.
As developers and real estate agents have
noted in our community, the transmission l-ine as proposed
wiIl adversely impact both the view corridor and property
values. There al-so remain questions about the current
configuration's possibJ-e compromising safety for the
second life-light landing area at the hospital. It al-so
comes at a cost of at least 30 million to fdaho's
ratepayers and potentially several- mil-l-ion to the north
valley for undergrounding.
Given the downsides of the Ij-ne, the
CSB REPORT]NG
(2oB) 890-s198
CHRISTENSEN
Public
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CHR]STENSEN
Publ-ic
question is are the upsides, the rel-iability provided,
worth it? Are there cost-effective, equal or better
al-ternatives that won't impact the view corridor and
property values or hospital needs?
Increasingfy, utilities, government
agencies, corporations, affordabl-e housing developers,
and the military are turning to local dlstributed energy
resources to provide energy resilience and save money.
integrated solarThese resources include, for instance,
and battery instal-lations, combined heat and power, fuel
ceIls, and el-ectrlcity generators. Even in locations
with existing grid redundancy, such as Rutland, Vermont,
util-ities are adding storage and microgrids to address
the vulnerability of the grid.
Today the Callfornia Energy Commj-ssi-on
held a workshop on the state of microgrids and
distributed energy resources with presentations by the
Commission, Honeywell, and energy advisory firm Navigant
Consulting. It was noted that the top drivers for
considering microgrids and di-stributed energy resources
were, in order of priority, reliability, resilience, and
cost savings. Other benefits noted incl-ude ancillary
services such as grid stability, as wel-l- as environmental-
protection.
So, are such distributed energy resourceso25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
CHR]STENSEN
Publ-ic
cost-effective al-ternatj-ves here? Coul-d we have greater
reliability, cost effectiveness without the downsides of
a l-j-ne? It appears that may be the case and it is at
least deserving of analysis given the view and property
value impacts. In line Mountain Express article published
today, Idaho National- Laboratory researcher Kurt Myers
said that when battery storage costs get to 350 to $400
per kil-owatt-hour, battery storage and renewables
projects woul-d rea11y take off .
The June 2077 report by management
consulting firm McKinsey & Company, "Battery Storage:
The next disruptive technol-ogy in the power sector, "
stated that battery costs have dropped from $1,000 per
kilowatt-hour in 20L0 to less than 230 per kilowatt-hour
in 2076, well below what Myers noted would lead to
renewables with battery systems taking off,being
naturalcompetitive with traditlonal- sources such as gas.
For reference,I'm happy
Here our
to provide the MiKinsey report.
average residential rates are
about nine cents per kil-owatt-hour is my understanding
and commercj-al- rates vary anywhere from six to ten cents
or more. For integrated sol-ar plus battery storage, one
of the largest renewable energy developers in the country
quoted me a pri-ce of four cents per kil-owatt-hour and a
local- renewable energy company quoted me approximatelyo25
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the same.
A few weeks ago some of you may have seen
the fu11y operational- microgrid at Forest Service Park.
That company's integrated system of solar plus battery
plus generator price is about $2.90 per watt plus the
generator fuel- costs when the generator is operating.
Again, this price is similar to, or even slightly lower
than, the sol-ar plus battery storage quotes we received,
so even twice these estimates is about equal to what
werre paying currently for residential- rates, so even
doub1e those numbers, it' s comparable.
What is so exciting and important is that
places l-ike the hospital, city facillties, and other
critical loads can now invest in on-si-te systems that are
potentially both more cost effective, savj-ng the money
right away, and rel-labl-e than the grid. Right now, they
can have a system that does provide the ful-l- operational
capabilities needed, not the smal-1 systems they currently
have in p1ace. Utilities are pursuing these projects
themsel-ves directly for these reasons. They are often
ownj-ng and operating these assets or co-investing with
private parties.
Idaho Power Company potentially has the
opportunity to both respond to customer concerns fox
reliability as wel-1 as meet economic and environmentaf
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CHRISTENSEN
Public
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CSB REPORTING
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CHRISTENSEN
Publ-ic
concerns, whj-le not contravening the countyrs existing
rufes. I hope we have the opportunity to work with them
to develop this opportunity. The Commissi-on can ensure
that these opportunities are weII considered to protect
both the ratepayers as well- as to potentially meet the
goals for reliability, economj-cs, and our natural-
environment in the community, and the utility can be a
ful-l- partner.
In conclusion, even here, with relatively
Iow power prices and a winter peaking load, with the
downsj-des of a line, there j-s a powerful case for a
clear-eyed analysis of alternatives to this line,
al-ternatives that have the potential- to provide greater
reliability, at or be1ow the cost of the line, and
without the l- j-ne's downsides of view impacts and the harm
to property values. This will protect both the community
and Idaho's ratepayers to ensure that any authorized
investment provides expected rel-iabil-ity at a fair
cost.
Thank you.
COMM]SSIONER ANDERSON Thank you, Ms
Christ.ensen.questions of
Connie woul-df warned you
get going too
Any
that
the Commission? Parties?
reach and grab you if you
fast.
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CSB REPORTING
(2oB) 890-5198
WETHERELL
Publ-1c
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Sury Cherp?
MR. CHERP: Maybe Guy Cherp.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Oh, okay, I'm
sorry.
MR. CHERP: So f signed in error. f
thought that was a sign-in sheet.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: You did sign this.
Okay, thank you. Shawn Grant?
Joanne Wetherel-I.
MS. WETHERELL: That was good.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Was it?
MS. WETHERELL: Yeah.
JOANNE WETHERELL,
appearlng as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testifi-ed as follows:
THE WITNESS: Irm Joanne Wetherell,
W-e-t-h-e-r-e-1-I, and I l-ive at 90 Stone Bridges
the mid vaIIey in Hailey, and f am an Idaho Power
customer. Thank you; so first of all I'd like to
that T appreciate the opportunity for you to take
comment. I'm not an expert with Idaho Power and
needs of the vaI1ey. I do know that we may have
alternatj-ve sources and certainly, if it is true
Road in
say
public
our
that weo25
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CSB REPORTING(208) I90-s 198
WETHERELL
Publ-ic
do need to repair those lines, maybe the shoo-f1y 11ne is
the best way to go.
Again, f'm not an expert in
in real estate, and what I woul-d
is that it is definite that Idaho
that, but I am
l-ike to share
Power's lines
an expert
with you
negatively affect
wou]d not want to
val-ues, home val-ues, and most of us
the EMF value and the
What I'm saying to al-I
being here, because it
underneath a power l-ine because of
view, the unsightliness of it.
of us here and thank you all for
f ive
is important that we protect our
and so it'sbiggest asset, which is our view corridor,
not just in my back yard, it's in everyone's front yard.
This is something that everyone wil-l- see coming up our
va11ey.
I oftentimes have clients ask me when
we're looking at propertj-es, "Why don't they bury those
ugly things?" And I said, "It's a matter of cost," and
I rm curious why Ketchum, you know, would make a deal to
have this go through, but only with the opportunity of
the lines being buried. I think that it is something the
entire valley needs to look at and I know it may be cost
prohibitive, so that's why I think we're all challenged
now to try to find a balance with our needs and keeping
the quality of l-ife and the vj-ew corridor that we have,
so thatrs al-I I have to say.o 25
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
PRETTY-BOY
Publ-ic
Thank you.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you,
Ms. Wethere1l. Any questions from the Commission?
Parties? Thank you again for your testimony.
(The witness l-eft the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON :Sunny Grant.
here that wouldThat's my l-ist. Is there anybody else
Pl-ease, comelike to say a few words?
yourself.
up and introduce
JASON PRETTY-BOY,
appearing as a public wj-tness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as folfows:
THE WITNESS: Jason P-r-e-t-t-y-B-o-y.
EXAMINAT]ON
BY MR. KLEIN:
O
A
And what's your address?
7667 West 4th, Kuna,
I'm here
Idaho, and I am an
Idaho Power customer, but on behal-f of the Snake
Ri-ver All-iance. We at the Snake River Al-Iiance have
looked over what Slerra Club has provided and we concur
with what they have found. T come to this personally,o 25
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
PRETTY_BOY
PubIic
though, as well because I grew up on
and I remember
the other side of
the mountaln in Carey,coming up the
it and remembering
it's grown and with
how do we get
val1ey and seeing just the beauty of
that. from the time I was a child, and
it, those problems come of, you know,
enough power up here, how do we get this thing to
actually light up, and how do you get those people on top
of the mountain.
One thing that I wifl sdy, I really
bel-ieve that this is a sol-ution looking for a problem.
It isn't needed and if it is needed, it is needed as a
way to actually rebuild what they already have here to
make it a stronger system, reaI1y. As I believe Ms.
Christensen actually said earl-ier, the power outage here
happened way below the substation. If the power happens
to go out before your substation, you're not going to get
power anyway, which actually is a great case for why we
shou1d be looking into alternative energies as we11,
which would provide energy to these businesses that need
that energy here in the valley, the hospital, Sun Va11ey
Company, and others.
They could go so.l-ar just as easily as
anybody efse and actually augment what they have already.
I think if Idaho Power wanted to jump on board with this,
they might actually help them get some generators aso25
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CSB REPORTING
(2oB ) 890-s198
PRETTY_BOY
Publ-1c
wel-l-. One generator is not going to provide enough for
this hospital, but once again, f won't start ranting,
because I normally do, but I will say that we at the
Snake River Al-l-iance concur with what the Sierra Club has
brought forth and we bel-ieve that thls redundant power
line is not needed at this time, though I woul-d say that
if the PUC wanted to look towards maybe strengthening
what they have here now, that might be a viable
al-ternative.
Thank you. I open myself up to your
questions.
Are there any
you very much
like to say a
comment.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Jason.
questions from Commissj-on? Parties? Thank
for your testimony.
(The witness l-eft the stand.)
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Would anyone else
few words?
THE AUDIENCE: I do have one quick
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CSB REPORTING(208) 890-s198
SCOTT PARKER,
appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLEIN:
O Go ahead and state your name and spell
your last name.
A Scott Parker, P-a-r-k-e-r, and I am an
Idaho Power customer as welI.
O Whatrs your address?
A My address is L45 Bird Drive, Ketchum.
O Thank you.
A f just have one kind of quick comment as
I'm curious. There are easements that need to be
considered on the Idaho Power lines and one area on
Buttercup Road where the power line comes through, I
understand there is a 5O-foot center line easementr so
how on the new proposed poJ-es are they going to fit that
in and how will that affect that easement on those
properties? So that's a big concern I haven't heard of,
so I ask the Commission to consider that as weII, the
power line easements.
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr.
PARKER
Pubf ic
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Parker. Are there any questions for Mr. Parker? Thank
you for your testimony.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness l-eft the stand. )
COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Last chance. If
anyone has any testimony that they'd l-ike to submit after
this meeting or if you have frlends that do, it can be
done in writing. Go to the PUC's website, save a stamp.
It's easier for everybody to get access to, and I reaIIy
want to extend my appreciation for the civility and the
courtesy you extended to thls Commission. Thatrs not
l-ost on us. [ile're grateful. We try to do the best job
that we possibly can with al-l- the information thatrs
given to us, but courtesy and civility real1y, truly go a
long way with all three of us, so thank you for that, and
if there's no other business to be before the Commission,
we are adjourned.
Thank you for coming.
(Public Exhibit No. 903 was marked for
identification at the conclusion of the hearing. )
(The Hearing adjourned at 9:23 p.m. )
CSB REPORT]NG(208) 890-s198
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CSB REPORTING
(208 ) 890-s198
AUTHENTICATTON
This is to certify that the foregoing
proceedings held in the matter of the application of
Idaho Power for a certj-fj-cate of public convenj-ence and
necessity to construct system improvements for Wood River
Va11ey customers, commencing at 7:00 p.m.r orr JuIy 26,
2017, Et Ketchum City HaI1, 480 East Avenue North,
Ketchum, Idaho, is a true and correct transcript. of said
proceedings and the original thereof for the fil-e of the
Commission.
CONSTANCE
Certified
S. BUCY
Shorthand Repo te #187
o 25
95 AUTHENTTCATTON
llltl\\
il
s.
TE