(Source: Business Wire)
An unprecedented coalition of intervenor groups has asked the Idaho Public Utility Commission to suspend for ten months its consideration of Idaho Power Company's request for pre-approved rate recovery of its proposed 300-megawatt Langley Gulch Power Plant.
The groups, who filed their request on May 29th, assert that "significant and unforeseen events have taken place since Idaho Power initially filed its Application [for rate recovery]. Any single one of these events," the groups argue, "would be sufficient cause¦ to seek to slow down the Company's forced march to seek Commission action on its request for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN)¦" The groups argue that since "the Langley Gulch power plant will be the single largest capital investment made by Idaho Power since the Hells Canyon Complex was constructed 50 years ago" and given that the utility seeks an expedited decision on what the intervenors call the "edge of great uncertainty," a suspension of the current CPCN docket for Langley Gulch is warranted.
The coalition members represent a broad spectrum of utility stakeholder interests and all are intervenors in the Langley Gulch CPCN proceeding. The group includes representatives of the utility's largest customers: the Industrial Customers of Idaho Power and the Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association; two of the state's leading environmental groups, the Snake River Alliance and the Idaho Conservation League; and the region's advocate for non-utility, independent power producers, the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC).
The intervenor coalition, in seeking a Stay in the CPCN proceedings, lists policy concerns ranging from recently expressed shareholder concerns with Idaho Power's mix of power resources, to the recession, which has put a serious dent in the Company's need for power.
"All the intervenor stakeholders in this docket believe that the Commission should exercise extreme caution' before reaching a decision on Langley Gulch," explains Peter Richardson, attorney for the Industrial Customers of Idaho Power. "The Commission's expedited review of Idaho Power's CPCN Application is 180 degrees from where we need to be. In proposing a Stay' in the proceedings, we hope to convince the Commission to call a time out and direct the Company to reconcile recent events with its insistence that Langley Gulch is urgently needed."
The groups' pleading opens with reference to the May 21st vote by a majority of IDACORP, Inc. (NYSE: IDA) shareholders that requires the Company to develop a plan for Idaho Power which will reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases.
