Open letter: We are the ones who will live in the future Idaho Power is shaping | Opinion

Dear Idaho Power CEO, Lisa Grow,

Right now, you’re in a position of power to help make or break Idaho’s future. Climate change has already brought on severe droughts, record-high temperatures, and increased wildfires in our region. Meanwhile, Idahoans are also struggling with increased housing and energy costs. As young people who love where we live, we are concerned about the future for these reasons and many more. We’ve been organizing and advocating for clean energy solutions, and we are asking you to reduce climate pollution and stabilize customer bills while providing economic and environmental benefits to our communities.

We appreciate Idaho Power’s ambitious clean energy goals. In your “Statement on Idaho Power’s Commitment to Clean Energy,” you declared “the clean energy revolution is here” and outlined Idaho Power’s plan to reach 100% clean energy by 2045. However, your recent proposals at the Idaho Public Utilities Commission tell us that you only stand behind your “commitments” to clean energy when they benefit the profits of you and your shareholders, not the 620,000 community members you serve.

Your proposals to decrease rooftop solar export credit rates and increase fixed service charge fees on customer bills are a direct contradiction to your claims of being rooted in “an unwavering commitment to reliability and affordability.” If your company is truly rooted in these values, you would not be proposing changes that betray the communities relying on your service to survive and thrive.

Idaho Power’s recent proposals would decrease the amount of money customers get for producing rooftop solar nearly 30% in the first year alone and to even lower unknown rates each year after that. Your low-balled rates are 55% lower than expert recommendations and fail to take into account the full range of benefits rooftop solar has on our grid, communities, and environment. For a company that claims to believe in the value of clean energy, it’s quite interesting that when it comes to customers making their own energy, the environmental and public health benefits are suddenly hard to quantify.

You are also proposing to triple the fixed service charge fee on residential power bills from $5 to $15, and after 3 years raise it to $35. This would create an even higher energy burden for low-income customers, disproportionately harming those struggling the most in the community while benefiting those that use the most power, discouraging energy conservation. An increase in fixed fees — combined with a decrease in the value of rooftop solar — would limit our personal freedoms to reduce our energy bills with energy efficiency and produce clean energy. And with so many people struggling with high housing costs, not everyone has the privilege and luxury to ignore their energy bill and the already harsh effects of the climate crisis.

Locally-owned solar allows your customers to have a part in producing the energy they use. It provides grid stability and reliability, improving your ability to keep the lights on, even during natural disasters and heat waves, while curbing the need to build additional (expensive) power plants. If that isn’t enough, local solar keeps economic benefits in the community. In one analysis, a major utility found rooftop solar could create as many as 30 times more jobs than utility-scale solar projects.

You have the power to champion affordable, locally-owned solar, but instead you push proposals that hurt solar owners, businesses, and entire communities. The choice is yours: are you going to prioritize people and the planet or shareholder profits? We, the youth, demand change. We are the ones who will face the future consequences of your inaction. As the climate crisis intensifies, and as the date on your commitment to 100% clean energy draws closer, we will not stand idly by. Our voices will be heard: we will protest, we will testify at hearings, and we will mobilize your customers to keep you from lining your own pockets and leaving our communities to burn in the sun.

Sincerely,

Idaho Climate Justice League