As You Sow: Health & Energy - Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions

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Health & Energy

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions

IDACORP

The May 2009 vote at IDACORP of 51% was the highest vote ever recorded for a climate change resolution and the first environmental resolution to receive a majority vote.

Click here to read the blog article of Fortune magazine's Marc Gunther, "A Historic Win for Green Shareholders."

Idaho Power gets the majority of its power from coal and was looking to expand its coal facilities until recently. Shareholders view a continued reliance on coal as both environmentally damaging and as a serious financial risk given that national climate-change legislation will impose significant taxes and caps on coal and other fossil fuels which emit green house gases.

The company is now seeking permission to build a new natural gas plant – yet natural gas is just another fossil fuel and will be greenhouse gas-taxed and -capped. Further, Idaho Power does not own any gas - all gas will have to be bought on the open market and will be susceptible to market fluctuations and competition. And while Idaho Power also gets a substantial amount of its energy from large-scale hydropower, it has not developed any non-hydro resources such as wind, solar, or geothermal - despite the fact that the 2007 Idaho Dept. of Energy plan indicated adequate renewable resource and efficiency opportunities within the state to handle all of Idaho Power’s needs over the next 20 years.

As You Sow’s position:

Increase Energy Efficiency: Energy efficiency practices such as giving incentives to irrigators to reduce peak energy use would cut summer peak capacity by more than total generating capacity of proposed natural gas plant
Reduce Reliance on Coal - Set Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets: Idaho Power is generally perceived as opposing state or federal Renewable Portfolio Standards and delaying the development of viable non-hydro renewable projects such as wind, solar, and geothermal. Some of Idaho Power’s electric industry peers who have set absolute reduction targets include American Electric Power, the nation’s largest electric generator; Entergy; Duke Energy; Exelon; National Grid and Consolidated Edison. Those with intensity targets include CMS Energy, PSEG, NiSource and Pinnacle West.
Develop Renewable Energy Resources: As renewables grow in the energy market, the cost of getting them online continues to decrease. Studies have identified that Idaho has significant untapped resources for renewable energies. Wind resources alone have been estimated from 5594 to 18,000 MW – almost two to six times the state’s total expected load in 2015 of 3,242 MW. Biomass could contribute over 300 million gallons of fuel, Geothermal has the potential for 860 MW, and there are approximately 2100 MW of potential hydroelectric power untapped in the state.