Today is the first or last day of AEHI’s life
April 22, 2009
Tonight (the evening of April 22, 2009) is the much anticipated third and final hearing of the Elmore County Planning and Zoning Board, which will be weighing on the issue of whether or not to rezone hundreds of acres of pastoral farmland along the scenic Snake River in Idaho to house a 1,600-megawatt nuclear power plant.
Since Virginia-based Alternate Energy Holdings, Inc. (AEHI) first announced plans in 2008 for a nuke plant in Idaho, the company has encountered hearty resistance. AEHI was booted out of one county by well-organized protesters. Then, when the company announced plans to move the plant site to Elmore County in Southwestern Idaho, two of Idaho’s most outspoken anti-nuke activists were quickly drawn into the battle. But AEHI wasn’t going to give in so easily this time.
One of the activists, Andrea Shipley, director of the Snake River Alliance, Idaho’s anti-nuclear group, called attention on a television newscast late last year to the company’s worrisome financial condition, saying ‘These guys are scammers. Regardless of how you feel about nuclear energy, these guys are scamming Idahoans.’ AEHI decided to act quickly and filed a defamation lawsuit against Shipley that ended much quieter than it began; AEHI had issued press releases galore about it being defamed, and the deleterious effect of Shipley’s slanderous comments on it’s already crippled stock price. Shipley told the Judge that she meant it (calling them ‘scammers’) only as an opinion, not as fact. The Judge was pleased. Case was dismissed.
The second activist was Dr. Rickards. When AEHI held its first Elmore County ‘information fair’ about its plant last year, in attendance at the meeting were Shipley and Dr. Peter Rickards, a podiatrist from Twin Falls. Both Shipley and Rickards felt that the event was a public meeting and, furthermore, a venue for their right of free expression, constitutionally speaking. But AEHI’s staff seemingly didn’t appreciate nor agree with this or their presence, asked them to leave, and after Shipley left, Rickards stayed. And, as it happens in the Westerns, things ended up physical. Who pushed who, or who pretended that they were pushed to later file assault and battery charges, will be hashed out in an Idaho appeals court.
AEHI’s lawsuits, however, didn’t put an injunction on Rickards’ and Shipley’s mouths. They continue speaking out about the dangers of putting a nuclear power plant in their state. Their efforts have encouraged other dissenters, such as one person who reasoned in his letter to the editor of an Idaho paper this morning: ‘Do we really want to live next to highly radioactive waste that puts our local farms and water at risk and may decrease the value of our crops?’
For those out of state, you may be asking: why all of this attention on a proposed nuke plant in Idaho when plans for nuke plants are sprouting up all over?
If you know about Idaho’s nuclear history, you’ll know that the state was for decades in the cross hairs of fallout from the Nevada Test Site, Idaho National Laboratory, and Hanford. Residents weren’t told the truth, or told for decades, or told at all, about what was being deposited at dangerous levels in their air, crops, and water. Cancers from fallout in Idaho’s past have been emerging and will continue to emerge without justice, awareness or recognition from public health authorities or related legislation. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (42 U.S.C. 2210), for example, compensates downwinders in 21 counties NOT in Idaho, but in Utah, Nevada and Arizona. U.S. Representatives from Idaho and Utah (Jim Matheson, Mike Simpson, and Walt Minnick) are trying to fix this: they sent a letter in February to the House Judiciary Committee asking to include Idaho (among other areas) in RECA. (Matheson’s also asked for hearings.) But there’s no word. As I’ve/we’ve often heard, ‘It’s stuck in the Judiciary Committee.’
Tonight, Idaho’s future is placed in the hands of another committee, the Elmore County P&Z Board, which is holding the last in a series of hearings on rezoning land for AEHI’s proposed nuke plant. The Board heard testimony from AEHI and environmental groups back in the fall of 2008 and this third hearing was significantly delayed because AEHI’s CEO had scheduling conflicts. But, since it is the final hearing, today is the first or last day of AEHI’s life; if the Board refuses to rezone, then it’s over. (Let’s hope.) So, if you know of anyone who can make it to tonight’s hearing, call the Snake River Alliance (SRA): 208.344.9161 or email: lwoodruff@snakeriveralliance.org to get more information, or visit SRA’s website.
