Otter names energy director

BOISE – Paul Kjellander was named Wednesday by Gov. Butch Otter as Idaho’s new energy czar, whose duties will include helping make sure the state gets a share of power expected to flow through new transmission lines planned for the region.

Kjellander, a member of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission since 1999, will lead the new Office of Energy Resources, the 20-employee unit Otter carved from the state Department of Water Resources last month. Kjellander now earns $89,483; the governor’s office didn’t immediately report his new salary.

He’ll represent Otter on issues including the state’s energy supplies, delivery, technologies, conservation – and the new power transmission lines that Idaho businesses are eager to tap once they are constructed in federal energy corridors expected to span the state’s length and breadth. Since June, companies have announced plans to build at least 1,600 miles of transmission lines linking Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Oregon by 2014 at a cost of $4.8 billion.

“I’m going to turn that whole file over to Paul this morning,” Otter said at a ceremony in his Boise office. “Of the companies I’ve talked to about transmission through Idaho, there is a request – which is perhaps a soft demand – that if they’re coming through the state, we’re going to have a substation or two in Idaho. I want us to have an equal opportunity to get on that grid.”

On Tuesday, Otter also met with Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal in a closed-door session to discuss power transmission. Freudenthal has complained that Wyoming, with huge coal and gas resources, produces more electricity than it can use, but can’t get it to markets that need the power.

Kjellander’s new job will include working with local governments in Idaho whose territories may be crisscrossed by federal energy corridors planned for 11 Western states. Envisioned are transmission lines and pipelines for natural gas, oil and hydrogen.

“Transmission lines cost a million dollars a mile to build, so you can see costs add up very quickly,” he said in an interview. “When you’re in the process of establishing corridors, you don’t want to have to go 30 or 40 miles around something if you don’t have to. Right-of-way is going to be critical.”

In the mid-1990s, Kjellander worked at Boise State University’s vocational-technical college and served three terms as a Republican state House member.

Since being appointed to the Idaho’s Public Utilities Commission by former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, he’s helped regulate prices charged by the state’s for-profit gas, water, electricity and telephone utilities.

Industry officials said his experience on that panel makes him a good choice as the new energy czar.

“He comes to his decisions after careful analysis and deliberation, based upon his broad knowledge of the utility industry,” said Ric Gale, Idaho Power vice president of regulatory affairs.

Energy has emerged as a major theme in Idaho. It’s the third-fastest-growing state after Arizona and Nevada, and officials want to keep electricity costs low to bolster the economy.

Lawmakers updated the state’s energy plan during the 2007 Legislature. And in May, Otter ordered the state Department of Environmental Quality to take stock of Idaho’s carbon emissions.

The results of that assessment could determine what new power generation plants will be allowed in Idaho as regulations are added to address emissions that can lead to global warming. The state already forbids coal-fired power plants, but “a lot of what they’re working on may open some new opportunities and may close some doors in terms of the generation resources,” Kjellander said.

On Tuesday, Otter told university presidents he was optimistic Idaho will benefit from nuclear energy, which doesn’t generate greenhouse gases. Standing at the governor’s side a day later, Kjellander said resurgent interest among Wall Street investors – and some 30 applications for new U.S. nuclear plants expected to be filed with federal regulators – are positive signs that reactors could one day become an option for Idaho’s energy needs, too.

“We’re going to have to have new generation resources,” Kjellander said. “Does it have promise? It does.”

Groups including Wyoming-based nuclear watchdog Keep Yellowstone Nuclear Free counter that Kjellander should instead pursue other sources of electricity including solar, wind and geothermal power.

“I’ll jump on the bandwagon … only when I see answers to safety issues, waste issues and ways to guard against terrorism and nuclear proliferation,” said Mary Woollen, a spokeswoman in Jackson, Wyo.

“Why not look at energy sources that don’t carry that legacy?”