Utility seeks $220 million from Idaho, Oregon ratepayers

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Officials are considering a utility company’s request to pass on to ratepayers $220 million in relicensing expenses for a three-dam hydroelectric project on the Idaho-Oregon border.
 
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has set an Oct. 11 settlement conference for Boise-based Idaho Power’s request concerning its stalled relicensing application for the Hells Canyon Complex on the Snake River.
 
Oregon officials are refusing to agree to the relicensing until salmon and steelhead can access four Oregon tributaries that feed into the Hells Canyon Complex, as required by Oregon law for the relicensing.
 
But Idaho lawmakers have prohibited moving federally protected salmon and steelhead upstream of the dams, which could force restoration work on Idaho’s environmentally degraded middle section of the Snake River.