Ask most Idahoans who haven’t yet read our new energy guide where their electricity comes from, and they’ll tell you most of it comes from the hydropower generated by the string of dams along the Snake River and its tributaries. While it’s true that Idaho relies on hydropower for a bit less than half its electricity, one of our dirty little secrets is that the bulk of the rest comes from coal plants in surrounding states. Idaho may not have a coal-fired power plant, but that doesn’t mean each of us isn’t responsible for huge amounts of pollution that are steadily changing the way our planet functions.

As Idahoans learn more about where their power comes from and how our energy choices affect our environment and the climate, more of us want to see our utilities replace dirty, conventional generation resources like coal-fired power plants with cleaner energy like wind, solar and geothermal energy. Trouble is, a lot of our energy decisions are made in ways that are tough to understand and even tougher to participate in. Many of uswant to have a say in where our electricity comes from; we just don’t know how.
Thanks to the generous assistance of our financial supporters, the Snake River Alliance has produced “Idaho’s Clean Energy Future – An Activist’s Guide to a Sustainable Energy Future,” which is available for free download. Our People’s Energy Project is designed to help plug you into the world where our energy decisions are made, from your electric utility to the state Public Utilities Commission that oversees investor-owned utilities.
We answer many of the questions you and others have about where our energy comes from, how it gets to you, the landscape of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Idaho, and how our energy choices impact our climate. Like you, we’re frustrated that Idaho’s voyage into the 21st Century World of Clean Energy has been way too slow and filled with unnecessary obstacles. Like you, we want action NOW!
We walk you through the bewildering world of energy policy, demystifying Idaho’s energy puzzle. We equip you with the basics of how the electricity business operates. And we debunk some of the myths about how energy works while empowering you with the information you need to engage in our energy conversation.
The Alliance envisions a clean energy future that not only allows us to begin shaking Idaho’s carbon habit by shutting down our dirty energy generators, but also one in which those climate-changing power plants are replaced with a mix of energy conservation and also with Idaho’s abundant renewable energy resources.