Famous last words: “Sustainable, renewable energy is going to play a big role in Idaho’s future.”-Butch Otter, current Governor of Idaho, 2011 statement
Reality check: “New projects are non-existent. There’s no support for renewables in this state.”-Peter Richardson, Boise attorney
As of 21 August 2012, Hoku Corporation stock was worth only 9 cents per share!
According to a recent Associated Press (AP) report, all of the promises of support for renewable energy related companies in Idaho, were false.
Pocatello’s Hoku Materials polysilicon factory for solar power panels is now officially mothballed. Boise’s Micron Technology’s energy venture is dead, and Emmett’s biomass power project failed.
Large scale wind power in Idaho is also being targeted.
The AP says the reasons range from federal tax breaks ending for the alternative energy industry, to economic war between China and the United States, to the fact that electricity rates in Idaho are already the second lowest in the country.
But what happened to all those promises of support from the State? The bottom line is that the government of Idaho does not want to throw money at new alternative energy companies, state officials are all talk, no walk (but they love to take the credit for companies moving to Idaho, Butch Otter did with Hoku in his 2007 State of the State speech). After all, Idaho’s main source of electricity already comes from decades old renewable and reliable hydroelectric dams (maybe that’s what Governor Otter was referring to in his 2011 statement).
Another thing, state lawmakers have not required local utility companies to buy into these new energy companies, as have the states of Oregon and Washington. In fact many of these new companies were required to buy their electricity from Idaho Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Avista!