BY KIKI TIDWELL
Prior to the pandemic, according to the Idaho Department of Commerce, employees earned $1.1 billion in 2017 in the travel industry in Idaho and “travelers spent $3.7 billion in Idaho in 2017”1. That is going to be a huge hole in Idaho’s economy now with travel and tourism shut down in the state and the potential for being shut down through at least the summer season, if not through this next year. In parallel, we have found out through this shelter-in-place experience how important electricity is. We have been able to stay connected with each other, to educate our kids, and to work from home through our computers and Internet connections.
Generating electricity in Idaho is the solution to Idaho climbing out of this economic devastation. Rather than buying power from power plants in other states and sending the income and property tax payments out of our state, we can build our own power plants here. Construction jobs here, property tax revenues paid here, and power plant income created in and circulating in Idaho.
Right now, Idaho Power wants to build a huge B2H transmission project to bring power from Oregon plants 305 miles to Idaho, with a clearcut 250-foot-wide swath through forests to get here. This is crazy! For the same amount of money, Idaho Power could build its own wind and solar projects here with now technologically great and cheaper batteries that ‘firm’ the power to be dispatchable when needed.
All the other states in the U.S. are replacing transmission projects with renewables/battery projects as it is cheaper for ratepayers. We already have transmission lines that we could use to sell excess power to states around us; the 2019 Integrated Resource Plan notes that Idaho experiences different peak demand times than neighboring states, so can profit off excess power at our low demand times.
Let’s use the naturally occurring resources we have here in abundance—solar, wind and hydro—and build our own electricity-generating projects. This is how we can significantly rebuild our economy here in Idaho!
63,000 Idahoans are directly and indirectly employed by the travel industry.
“Travel and tourism is a massive industry in Idaho—the third largest behind agriculture and technology.”
“Two of the biggest things that draw tourists here, according to Borud, is that they have a good experience and that they feel safe and secure.”
1 Danae Lenz dlenz@journalnet.com Travel Industry a boon to Idaho’s economy May 28, 2019
