Sullivan Reberger Eiguren has been working with the Idaho Petroleum Council in drafting preliminary legislation to help clarify rules for natural gas development. Contrary to the insinuations of secrecy in the article, we’ve been extremely open in the development and discussion of legislation. We sought out the Idaho Association of Counties and asked their input on the first iteration – indeed, that’s how a copy of the draft was passed to the Associated Press.

The concept of “less local control” is simply one bookend and a point of departure for discussion. We fully expect to negotiate with counties to achieve consensus and if we can’t, then unresolved issues will go to the legislature for resolution. Our efforts in this area are an extension of our work with representatives of the oil and gas industry, environmentalists, local governments and several residents of Payette and Washington counties to craft a set of rules for natural gas extraction in Idaho.

We are not interested in precluding counties from exercising their proper role in regulating natural gas development. We are instead interested in bringing the best practices done in other states to Idaho, to create a regulatory regimen that balances the protection of public safety with the development of oil and gas. In any case, we expect to have the legislation in final form – however that might look – by the end of January, with public comment in February and legislative adoption in early March.

It’s important to keep in mind there are 46 states in the union with oil and gas fields in them and they have all, in one fashion or another, worked these issues out pretty clearly decades ago. When a new challenge presents itself, they have an established process for worked toward consensus. We are in the nascent stages of this in Idaho and we look forward to a public discussion about the issues.

Colby Cameron, Sullivan Reberger Eiguren principal and legislative affairs professional

Cameron will assist partners Patrick Sullivan, Phil Reberger and Roy Eiguren with representing client affairs to the Idaho Legislature and other government entities in the retail, environmental, education, transportation, energy and health care sectors.

From 2008-2010, Cameron worked for Sullivan Reberger in a similar capacity. In addition, Cameron has worked as a policy assistant for Gov. Dirk Kempthorne; a constituent services specialist for Gov. Jim Risch; a technical writer with Boise State University Environmental Finance Center; a city planner for Garden City; and a program manager for Kaplan Virtual Education.

“Colby is a bright young man with extensive experience in public policy at the state, federal and local levels and he will make an excellent addition to our team, which includes the top government relations professionals in Idaho,” SRE founding partner Patrick J. Sullivan said.

Cameron holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Boise State University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Idaho State University. He is currently a lifetime Member of Pi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society for Public Affairs and Administration and a Member of Delta Sigma Phi National Fraternity.

Sullivan Reberger Eiguren is headquartered in the historic Hoff Building in Boise and offers strategic management services. For more information, visit idaho-politics.com.

Transportation: 2012 will be the last year for Grant Anticipations Revenue Vehicle (GARVEE) funding in Idaho. Since it began in 2005, Idaho has used $855 million to build, improve and make more safe highways throughout the state. We will be assisting in the effort to secure continued funding for this valuable infrastructure program.

Entitlement programs: The practice of distributing food stamp benefits automatically on the first of the month has caused substantial problems for members of the Northwest Grocery Association in terms of crowded stores and wasted food (see this blog post for details). Given that the number of people receiving food stamp assistance has grown 25 percent in Idaho in the past two years, the problem will get worse and NBC recently did a story on it. We tried during the 2011 Legislative session to achieve a staggered distribution and we believe we will be able to achieve staggered distribution for next spring.

Energy: In November, SRE was instrumental in formulating rules to govern natural gas extraction in Idaho, in cooperation with industry, citizen and environmental representatives. These efforts stem from Halliburton’s efforts to develop natural gas resources in Payette County. These rules will need legislative approval, as well as some other changes we are proposing to the state’s oil and gas laws.

Education reform: We will be involved with technical corrections to deal with certain elements of packages to come out of this year’s sessions, and clarify sections of the law regarding the specific authorities of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Department of Education and local education authorities.

Grocery tax credit: We believe we will find success in our efforts to fund the grocery tax credit for around $99, which will cost $150 million from the state budget. This will be increased incrementally to $400 in 2014.

Telecommunications: Currently, the Idaho Public Utility Commission only regulates land line phones. Cell phone and wireless communications are not included and as technology progresses, there is occasional need to update the law. On behalf of Verizon, will we be seeing to amend the public utility statues to clarify that Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOiP) is excluded from regulation, like other forms of wireless communication. Also, we will be seeking to put in place a statute in Idaho to ensure uniform interstate regulation of insurance for products like cell phones. Asurion, which provides consumer device insurance coverage to cell phone providers, seeks uniform laws in all states to facilitate business.

Beer and wine statutes: We will seek to refine the cash-on-demand law. Previously, this required beer and wine retailers to pay wholesalers upon delivery, but this was an unreasonable and antiquated requirement. We succeeded in instituting a 5-day grace period in the 2011 session, but this law needs some additional clarification.

Criminal justice system: Three years ago, we assisted with a much-needed overhaul to the Idaho Bail Act. Yet there are a few items that need to be addressed to assure that bail companies can fairly recover their costs. We will address these in more detail in a later blog.

Everyone wants similar things, however. We all want safe, affordable energy. We all want a clean environment. We all want the good-paying jobs that go with energy production.

Sometimes, circumstances and factions align to bring sparring sides to the table and craft an agreement. In my company’s work with Halliburton, I am pleased to have been involved in crafting a set of rules for natural gas extraction in Idaho. As the Idaho Statesman reports, the Idaho Oil and Gas Commission approved these rules earlier this week. Representatives of the oil and gas industry, environmentalists, local governments and several residents of Payette and Washington counties all worked together to craft the rules.

In a nutshell, the rules call for a 15-day period for public comments for drilling and well extraction; bonding requiring $10,000 plus an additional dollar for every foot drilled; notification to owners of surface rights within 60 days in advance of drilling, and a $5,000 bond to cover lost agricultural income and lost value in improvements.

The controversy over natural gas extraction in Payette County has been very contentious. But I think these rules represent a clear consensus by the natural gas industry, the environmental community and local governments on what is needed to state rules.

We applaud the Department of Lands for conducting an excellent rulemaking process.  We look forward to improving these rules once we have the benefit of operational experience in the field.

UI President Duane Nellis and his wife attended, as did some 60 alumni and Basque community members. After traditional food, we enjoyed – and participated in – a terrific performance by the Oinkari Basque Dancers. It is one of the great pleasures of life to keep both your ties to your university and with your heritage.

Water in Idaho – including groundwater – is relatively scarce, yet the backbone of our economy. The last thing the energy industry wants to do is damage it and the petroleum council has some especially good information on the extensive steps taken to protect it.

Here’s an excerpt:

In addition to wheat and feed barley, their land will yield electricity. The Kopps are among the growers who will reap royalties from one of two separate wind projects in the works in Power County … Kryst Krein, who farms 1,000 acres of irrigated wheat, corn and potatoes in the Neeley area near American Falls, is among the growers benefiting from another project advanced by Ridgeline Energy, involving 44 wind turbines capable of producing 1.8 megawatts of power.

Fortunately, officials in Payette County are weighing both sides of the issue. On Aug. 18, according to the Argus Observer, The Payette County Planning and Zoning Committee voted 6-1 to approve a conditional use permit allowing Bridge Energy to build a dehydration compression station in Payette County, so long as the company complies with the conditions the committee reviewed.

This is welcome news, because our nation needs as many sources of clean energy as it can develop. Natural gas has an important role to play, as it emits only half the carbon of coal and has few of the toxic byproducts. Natural gas can be stored and transported and used to immediately meet peak demands. Fortuitously, Idaho Power has built a natural gas power generating station in Payette County.

The Idaho Petroleum Council has set up a Web site to  provide accurate information. Hydrofracturing isn’t inherently polluting or hazardous and has been used in some fashion for decades without harm. With proper regulation and oversight, natural gas extraction can be as safe and productive as any other form of energy production.

The Public Utility regulatory Policies act (PURPA) forces regulated utilities to buy power from smaller producers under certain conditions. The idea is that smaller, entrepreneurial energy producers should be encouraged and they may save utilities the expense and trouble of developing their own energy resources.

The PUC made permanent a 100-kilowatt cap for wind and solar projects eligible for favorable rates under PURPA. If a project exceeds that size, it does not qualify for favorable rates, so only the very smallest projects may qualify. Other renewable projects – such as hydro or geothermal – can be as large as 10 megawatts to qualify for the PURPA rate.

The result is that wind and solar power companies must negotiate with companies. Many power companies are wary of wind and solar because of its unpredictable, intermittent nature. Wind especially may generate power erratically and utilities are all about consistency of delivery.

Having to cut deals with power companies “makes it very hard for wind projects to get an attractive rate,” Ben Otto, an energy specialist with the Idaho Conservation League, told The Idaho Statesman. “It’s a debate about short term versus long term.” Idaho Power, Rocky Mountain Power and Avista (I am a former board member of Avista) are behind the push.

I don’t think they’re necessarily anti-wind, but they are leery about the expense of integrating unpredictable sources into a system that demands predictability.

According to The Statesman, wind turbine construction wouldn’t stop immediately as Idaho Power still has more than 400 megawatts of contracts with developers. Also, this was the second serious setback this year for the industry, as the Legislature let lapse a sales tax exemption for renewables.

At Sullivan Reberger Eiguren, we were able to secure some important victories for our clients, while in other cases, controversies and the peculiarities of the legislative process prevailed. Here is a partial list of some of our work this session:

Energy: On the whole, this was not a good session for energy production. By one vote, the Idaho Senate killed a 6 percent sales tax rebate on renewable energy equipment that has brought millions of dollars in jobs and revenue to Idaho since 2005 (We represent Exergy, a wind developer). A number of other renewable energy-related bills also died and this is bad news for the 18 wind projects in-process and other biomass, geothermal and small hydro projects that have been proposed, or may be contemplated. As a result, says Idaho Statesman reporter Rocky Barker, Idaho will be left with few tools to attract renewable energy developers.  In fact, the only successful renewable energy measure this year will allow geothermal generation on state lands. Fortunately, a bill to restrict siting of wind farm locations and requiring a two-mile setback was killed. We think local jurisdictions can best make these siting decisions.

Groceries: We scored a significant victory for the Northwest Grocery Association in removing outdated legislation that required retailers to pay beer and wine distributors upon delivery. This legislation developed after Prohibition and was intended to keep grocers from becoming indebted to, and controlled by, alcohol distributors, who were criminal-influenced enterprises back in the day. A lot has changed in 70 years and this is no longer the case. Retailers now have five days to pay distributors electronically. Unfortunately, we were not able to get food stamp benefits spread out over the first five days of the month, to reduce chaos and overcrowding at grocery stores. This seemed like a no-brainer but it got caught up in the politics of the legislative process. We are working to bring this to the legislature next year.

Waste disposal: We successfully helped our client, US Ecology Corporation, with legislation to update Idaho statutes to conform to recently changed federal statutes regarding classifications of waste material that may be imported. The company employs 80 at its Grandview facility.

Communications: The Idaho Public Utilities Commission requires many service providers to submit official tariffs, or rate schedules, to the commission. Our client, Verizon communications, maintains that by posting these schedules on its Web site, it should not need to formally file with the IPUC, and the legislature agreed.

One of the more unusual bills this session would have banned “blunts,” which are whole tobacco leaves sold so people can roll their own cigars. The cigar industry sought to make this illegal, saying people may use tobacco blunts for illegal drugs, but the legislature saw this strange claim for what it was: simply an excuse by cigar makers to make it more difficult for people to roll their own cigars. Our client, National Tobacco Company, may continue selling blunts to consumers.