Power line dilemma

Idaho Power isn’t the most popular company in Baker County these days.

In fact it’s not even close.

We understand why some locals don’t think much of the Boise firm.

After more than a year of meetings, the company’s proposed route for a major transmission line looks an awful lot like the original version as it wends its way through the county a few miles east of Baker City.

We’re not especially surprised by this.

After all, if you draw a straight line between the route’s two endpoints — Boardman, Ore., and Hemingway, Idaho — the line goes through Baker County.

We agree with local critics who contend Idaho Power’s preferred route is too close to the Center.

Curiously, though, the key to solving this location dilemma requires residents to work with, rather than against, Idaho Power.

At issue is the sage grouse.

Idaho Power officials said during a meeting in Baker City last week that they’re not averse to moving the route a few miles farther east, where it wouldn’t be so visually intrusive at the Center.

“We’d love to go another three miles,” Idaho Power’s Kent McCarthy said.

The obstacle, he said, is the sage grouse, a chicken-size bird that the federal government says deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife requires Idaho Power to maintain a two-mile buffer around sage grouse “leks” — places where sage grouse gather each spring for their mating ritual.

McCarthy said ODFW’s decision earlier this year to designate one sage grouse lek as active forced Idaho Power to pick the route nearer the Center.

So let the negotiations and the lobbying begin.

Local residents, instead of taking on Idaho Power, should urge ODFW to help the company plot a route that minimizes the possible effects on sage grouse but keeps the power line as far as possible from the Interpretive Center.

Except for a successful lawsuit it’s unlikely that Idaho Power can be forced to bypass the county, so working to gain even a small victory, as regards the view from the Interpretive Center, would be much more satisfying than a complete defeat.