No one stuck to the rules in Idaho nuke, er.. rezone, hearing

Well, the Elmore County P&Z hearing came and went.

To hear what the Snake River Alliance claims happened, read and consider their post-game review and action step. The SRA asserts that the ‘…Commission heard from dozens of local residents and other concerned Idahoans that they do not want Prime A Agricultural land to be rezoned…that the job creation claims asserted by the developer will likely never occur and that local residents are not willing to sacrifice the back-bone of their economy—agriculture—for the false promise of jobs…’

AEHI, likewise, claims victory in their press release. They state that although pro-plant testimony was about the same (slightly more) than con-plant testimony, the crowd of hundreds was mostly pro-plant: ‘Hundreds of people packed a hearing room Wednesday night to show their support of a proposal to rezone 1,300 acres of land for a power plant.’ Since the Boise Weekly article (below) states that ‘More than 200 people attended,’ the only way that ‘hundreds…packed a hearing room…to show their support’ is if nearly everyone there was pro-plant. It doesn’t seem like that was the case.

I recommend reading Boise Weekly’s piece, ‘Nuclear subdivision: Elmore plant raises same objections as subdivision.‘ But much more interesting is our observation that Andrea Shipley is already putting into practice what she learned from being sued by AEHI, which is: always make it clear that your criticism is interpreted as opinion if you can’t back it up with hard proof, thus avoiding a defamation or slander lawsuit! Thus, she told KIVI-TV regarding AEHI’s controversial curb-side job fair last night: ‘It’s kind of a false hope in our opinion to get out here in an economic crises and offer hard working jobs that really aren’t there.’ Note her use of the phrase ‘in our opinion.’ That Shipley’s a smart cookie!

Now we just wait: 2 to 4 weeks.