In mid-March 2026, Idaho Power Company (IPC) applied to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity (case number IPC-E-26-04), to invest in and construct two new methane gas power plants and extra pipeline capacity in southern Idaho over the next few years [1-5].  IPC proposes to build the South Hills plant on the Snake River near Milner, Idaho, to generate 222 total megawatts of electricity from 12 reciprocating engines by June 2029 (enclosed concept picture), and the Peregrine plant between Boise and Mountain Home, to produce 430 megawatts from one massive, single-cycle combustion turbine by June 2030.  IPC claims that it needs to make investments now in these resources, to meet peak demands beyond its adequate, existing system, and due to the long lead times required to obtain gas generation equipment and additional pipeline capacity.  The company forecasts rapid load growth from committed industrial sites and predicted large-load users.

As the initial, formal step for any utility seeking approval for new infrastructure, IPC is requesting PUC permission to begin accounting for its spending on these gas plants.  If or when it brings these projects online, IPC will engage another PUC process to recover project costs from its customers.  In the present case, Northwest Energy Coalition and Renewable Northwest have intervened in opposition, while large-load users Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association and computer memory and data storage manufacturer Micron Technology as well as PUC staff represent various interests [6].  Spring 2026 searches yielded little public information about these power plants, beyond the PUC site and industry articles.

As always with the climate-wrecking schemes of the oil and gas industry and its utility enablers, these facilities may manifest the covertly planned destinations for the 80 percent of additional Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline methane pushed by TC Energy through the GTN Xpress expansion toward Idaho, and/or for the products of two Snake River Oil and Gas wells drilled near the Payette River, the Fruitland city water intake plant, and a dense residential/business area in June and July 2026.  Owner of the other interconnected, regional, methane pipeline network, Williams Companies announced in May the proposed Silver Spur expansion of its Northwest pipeline system from Opal, Wyoming, toward the Northwest, the first phase of its Rockies Columbia Connector ambitions to add a 90-mile transmission line into Idaho, which could impose 275 million cubic feet per day of methane by early 2030 [7].

Climate activists collective Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) noticed these developments in April and has been sharing news, articles, and reflections about the proposed South Hills and Peregrine methane power plants on our weekly Climate Justice Forum radio program, broadcast for fourteen years on progressive, volunteer, community station KRFP Radio Free Moscow [8, 9].  Throughout the last year and decades, we also continue to offer public process and direct action support to frontline, Payette County residents opposed to riverside and residential area gas well drilling.  This spring, we were further shocked to learn that a third methane power plant slipped under the Boise resistance radar, as the PUC permitted its construction in Mountain Home.  WIRT hopes that this overbuild of soon outdated and defunct fossil fuels infrastructure in the Idaho high desert does not fuel more remote data centers dreams or distant, urban electrification of utilities and transportation. Continue reading →