AEHI sends letters to Idaho green groups

Environmentalists see red over proposed Idaho nuclear power plant

Here's a bright idea. Say you want to build a nuclear power plant. Then decide before you've so much as made a phone call to the NRC to begin the licensing process, send a letter, no send a dozen letters, to every environmental group you can think of who will make it their mission in life to stop your project dead in its tracks.

Think this is the start of a tall tale? Think again. Last week Alternative Energy Holdings Inc. (AEHI) sent letters to a dozen Idaho environmental groups asking them to support a proposed 1,600 Mw nuclear reactor in southwestern Idaho. The Twin Falls Times News reports the reactions couldn't have been more predictable.

The letters went to the region's most prominent environmental groups - including Snake River Alliance, the Idaho Conservation League and the Northern Rockies chapter of the Sierra Club - asking the organizations to support the project. Here's a sample of the reactions . . .

• "It's hogwash," said Katie Fite, a spokeswoman for Western Watersheds Project, a Hailey-based green group. "I mean, they're incredibly dangerous, and the last thing we need is a nuclear power plant."
  


• "These guys (at Alternate Energy) are making irresponsible and forward-thinking statements that should raise some serious concerns," said Jeremy Maxand, executive director of Snake River Alliance. He told the Times-News Idaho has no need for nuclear power because other forms of power production, namely wind and geothermal, have yet to be fully tapped.

With that political meltdown well underway, along comes Martin Johncox. He's a former reporter for the Idaho Statesman and now in the public relations business out of Boise. Johncox has hired on as a spokesman for the company. Despite the fiery opposition generated by AEHI's letters, he said the company will submit applications to Owyhee county and the NRC.

Give AEHI credit they understand the game they are in. Johncox said the NRC license application could cost $78M and the complexities of the project could push the start date for operations to generate electric power to 2025. These are actually realistic estimates.

That's also plenty of time for the seeds planted by AEHI's letters to turn into a forest of opposition to the proposed nuclear power plant. What's next with AEHI? This one is a real head scratcher.