20110505Comment.pdf

Jean Jewell
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gfleisch986(ghotmail.com
Wednesday, May 04, 2011 10:33 AM
Jean Jewell; Beverly Barker; Gene Fadness
PUC Comment Form
A Comment from Gerald Fleischman follows:
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Case Number: E-11-06
Name: Gerald Fleischman
Address: 11535 W. Hazeldale Ct.
City: Boise
State: ID
Zip: 83713
Daytime Telephone: [phone]
Contact E-Mail: gfleisch986~hotmail.com
Name of Utility Company: Idaho Power Company
Acknowledge: acknowledge
Please describe your comment briefly:
I just wanted to remind the commission that we should not be complacent in the idea that we
produce a significant portion of the energy we use in the state from our own resources. We
produce 10,566,306 MWh (36.06 tBtu)of electricity depending on the year from all renewable
energy resources in Idaho.(http://www.eia.doe.gov/state/SEP MoreReserves.cfm)
We consume approximately 529 tBtu. Thus we generate approximately 6.8% of our total energy
use. We are a long way from any substantial production of our own energy.
Also, the long term supply of natural gas in the United States may not be what it is being
hyped to be. Note the following excerpt from James Howard Kunstler's April 4, 2011 blog:
http://kunstler . com/blog/2011/04/blowing-green- smoke. html
Mr. Obama told the nation that we have a 100 year supply of natural gas. (The moronic Larry
Kudlow of CNBC told his audience it was 300 years). Neither of them knows what he is talking
about (and evidently Energy Secretary Chu doesn i t either). So far, proven reserves of shale
gas amount to about a 4 to 6 year US supply at current rates, and total natural gas reserves
- including conventional gas, the kind that doesn't require fracking - amounts to about a 12
year supply. The idea that we are going to ramp up an entire natural gas fueling system for
America's tractor-trailer trucks is an absurdity.
Ditto the notion that we are going to electrify the US auto fleet.
I don i t know exactly where Kunstler get's his numbers, but they should be investigated.
My point is that good water years may be good, but their significance in terms of the overall
economy and our sources of energy is relatively insignificant. If hydropower and other
renewables in Idaho only supply 6.8% of our enery needs, long term energy strategy should be
focussed on sources that can displace the other 93.2% of our energy supply.
The form submitted on http://www.puc.idaho.gov/forms/ipuc1/ipuc.html
IP address is 164.165.52.100
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