Posts published in December 2007

We have tended to be dismissive, for now at least, of the reported plans for for nuclear power generation from a to-be-built plant near Bruneau. The whole thing simply has looked unrealistic: A coalition of backers that easily could fall apart over time; unrealistic expectations about how quickly the work could be approved and completed; and so on.

Word today about a proposed nuclear plant in northern Payette County, on the other hand, looks a good deal more solid.

The big reason is the financing. Nuclear plants ain't cheap, and a super-solid financial base has to be a prerequisite for one. In this case, it would be there: The builder would be MidAmerican Nuclear Energy Co., which is new but which is owned by MidAmerican Energy Holdings, controlled by Berkshire Hathaway - which is to say, Warren Buffett, who is on the very short list of the richest Americans. MidAmerican Energy, which is based in Iowa, has assets of almost $35 billion. So we're talking about realistic financial capacity.

Their language is a good deal more modest, too, than what we heard about of Bruneau. A quote in the Idaho Statesman was that "We're in a very preliminary due diligence process to look at a potential energy project in Payette County" - which seems a fair take. It is undertaking some tests, but hasn't bought land and won't decide whether to proceed until some time next year. (So it may or may not be pursued at all.)

It sounds deliberate, the way a nuclear plant builder might be expected to sound.

Bill Sali

There must be a temptation for Republican politicians to want to keep their heads down and go small and quiet when it comes to immigration. The Republican base is so thoroughly split that even the party's presidential candidates have been tearing each other, and themselves, into pieces on the subject.

Maybe such a situation is a call for nuance, which might in turn explain Idaho Representative Bill Sali's entry into the arena. He said at a business meeting last week that he plans to introduce a bill. Which is of only so much interest, since there are a lot of bills. What's interesting is that there doesn't seem to be any bomb-throwing in it. A description from the Idaho Business Review:

The bill would combine border security, increased immigration law enforcement and a temporary worker program with controls to prevent foreign workers from flooding the market and displacing American workers.
The key to immigration reform is to combine groups that want to see the borders protected and groups that are concerned with the effects on the economy – particularly the agriculture, construction and hospitality industries – that a loss of immigrant workers would create, he said.
Sali said he tends to fall into the first camp, but he sees the effects of a lack of immigrant workers on agriculture.

Nuance. From Bill Sali. Will be interesting to see how he explains this to the bumper-sticker crowd.

Larry Craig

The Idaho Statesman has a batch of additional items about Larry Craig and his once-private life, filling out the subject perhaps but to an unclear point.

There are five of them (and do not include the much-detailed sting encounter in the Minneapolis restroom). Two, one said to have occurred in Washington, D.C., the other in Denver, are detailed descriptions of actual sexual encounters; both of these stories appeared around the web a couple of months ago. The other three are descriptions of what the men interviewed said seemed to be propositions by Craig. Reporter Dan Popkey said that checks of such external information as was available (such as, was Craig in town at the time?) did not rule out any of the stories. But neither was there any corroboration that was conclusive.

That backchecking of details of the stories already published on the web could have some value. But the outlines of the story are pretty well set at this point: A minority will go along with Craig's famous assertion that "I'm not gay," and (so far as we can see) a large majority will continue to conclude that he's been covering up a hidden life. Those outlines haven't changed since late August, or maybe early September.

In a statement on why the Statesman continued pursuing the details, Executive Editor Vicki Gowler indicated that it was because his credibility was in doubt. Problem is, that ship sailed months ago, while the credibility of any number of other political figures in and around Idaho has gone relatively unchecked.