Business
Eastern Idaho Energy Dreams Slowly Crumbling
January 4, 2012 
Eastern Idaho’s grandiose efforts to attract business with “incentives” taken out of the pockets of taxpayers are slowly crumbling despite feeble attempts at life support.
First it was the Hoku solar panel plant in Pocatello falling on hard times with plummeting stock prices and Idaho Power ready to pull the plug on its electricity. Now the planned AREVA nuke waste processing facility near Idaho Falls is on “hold” and recent industry reports don’t paint a glowing picture for that industry.
The French-owned AREVA continues its design phase because they get money from the citizens of the USA, but this nuke industryREPORT doesn’t bode well for the future of the firm.
The GUARDIAN has read reports from the HOKU home state of Hawaii and their business future doesn’t look very bright either. Both of these firms depend upon public money to survive, but politicos are getting the message during this election year to end subsidies for energy schemes ranging from corn fed ethanol to windmill farms.
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Comments & Discussion
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Jan 4, 2012, 12:10 pm
Dear green people, Al Gore was/is full of s#!t. If you look at the man’s life, he did nothing but suck the blood of this country. His best friends and financiers are the Chinese who are the worst polluters in the world. (He got campaign money and they got missile and nuclear technology. Now our navy is not as safe at sea as it was 10 years ago.) His agenda was/is to convince enough Americans to tear down America themselves out of guilt. It worked. The results are this kind of silly business idea. Please note how the Chinese are involved in so many of these hokey ideas. Bus dealership any one. Team Dave’s solar plant. etc. etc. And the French are just filling the void where American companies have left off after stepping away from the politically incorrect nuke issue.
Jan 5, 2012, 8:18 am
The real issue regarding solar was the notion we were headed off a cliff with respect to energy of all kinds.
Fraking (sp) shale for natural gas and even oil has changed the energy picture all over the world. Those expensive solar panels people paid for were never purchased based on sound financial ratios. People purchased them thinking they were going to be energy independent at some level in their homes and offices. Then there is the Federal tax credits that brought down the price a bit but not enough to make it financially feasible to help drive demand for the technology.
In the end the whole solar wind deal just didn’t pull its own weight. Big Oil now controls a lot of the supplies of natural gas. They will dribble it out to us in a manner that will maximize their profits and our costs.
Energy of all types needs to be used efficiently no matter what we use. The supply is finite with respect to fossil fuels.
Jan 5, 2012, 10:13 am
Paul,
The energy picture has not changed. Fraking is only possible at very high oil prices. It is those very high prices which crushed the world economy and is keeping it down. Yes we do have our own now with the Braken field etc., but it is of little good to the overall economy if the consumer prices remain high.
My overly simplistic fix is to charge the Arabs a huge price for their safety (our military). We don’t do this because the Arabs own our political structure, both dem and rep. America is the world’s policeman and we also still feed and medicate much of it for free too. We need to make those good and services very expensive, even more expensive than Arab oil.
Jan 5, 2012, 2:22 pm
I agree with you Zippo. For all the good we do in the world we get a bum rap from the very people we try to help.
I was very sad to see the sectarian violence in Iraq the next day after the US pullout. I think it was the point in time I found myself in agreement with Ron Paul questioning our foreign bases and efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The people of this country have been stuck with a bill for these two wars and just what have we accomplished?
Jan 6, 2012, 12:07 am
That nitwit Bush really thought if he prayed enough, and killed enough hairy guys with Saddam haircuts, the oldest and meanest place on earth would see what a great guy he was and become as safe as a small North Texas town after Sunday church.
Jan 6, 2012, 12:11 am
Ok Editor… That’s really it for a while. Others need a chance to pick on Pearl-Handle Tall-Boots Rick. Not till March or April I’m told. I have a sat phone, but after the Wiki-Leaks thing I can’t even call my girlfriends.
Jan 6, 2012, 7:43 pm
how did this go from a buisness story too comments about Bush?
Zippo your a piece of work
Jan 8, 2012, 5:24 pm
Rick I thought Zippo hit it about right.
Jan 9, 2012, 1:39 pm
Rant here has some good points about the energy issue. This happened in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Big energy pulled the plug on alternative USA based alternative power. Reagan yanked the solar panels off the White House as soon as he was elected. It was a sign of Jimmy Carter weakness.
Too bad this country is so short sighted. Now our entire infrastructure is crumbling because it just don’t pay.
Well the Afgan/Iraq wars didn’t pay either. Oh forgot, trillions of dollars later, we have more freedom now don’t we? The only players getting rich is the military industrial complex which has a fine socialist healthcare system and the politicians get it for life.
You taxpayer, will continue to pay and pay even more for your energy and healthcare. It’s how it works.