Stennett: Pearce ‘never indicated he had a lease with the company that was presenting before us’

Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, who serves on the Senate Resources Committee, is now detailing for the Senate Ethics Committee the process of consideration that committee members went through when considering HB 464, the oil and gas development bill that pre-empted county authority over siting of wells. She said under the bill, Payette County, where Pearce lives, “had no more control, could not do their conditional-use permits … had no control of the siting of these additional wells.” She said, “HB 464 speaks to that the state would have the control over the siting, and that the local entities wouldn’t. During this whole time, Sen. Pearce never indicated he had a conflict of interest, that he had a lease with the company that was presenting before us.”

She also said Pearce was “instrumental in actually taking it out of the 14th Order and not allowing for amendments for local control and putting it back on the 3rd Reading Calendar, which … nullified the ability for us to make the amendments, which half of the Senate had agreed upon, to take it to the 14th Order.” All that occurred prior to Pearce’s conflict-of-interest declaration before the final Senate vote on the bill.

Stennett also told the committee that rules permitting fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, increase the value of existing oil and gas leases. “Those have the potential for financial gain, if they prove to be, with this technology, better producing,” she said.