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Registration is now open for the 2015 Conference on Housing and Economic Development to be held at the Boise Centre October 6-7. The conference draws hundreds of professionals from all corners of the housing and economic development sectors every three years, including mortgage finance, construction, single-family and multifamily housing, senior housing, real estate, nonprofits and government, affordable housing and more.

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission is taking comment through August 27 on an Idaho Power Company application to enter into a long-term contract with Siemens Energy to maintain the electric utility’s three natural gas plants. Idaho Power also proposes to sell Siemens $21.9 million from its spare part inventory.

Site Based Energy claims that ten, 100-kilowatt projects are separate projects with different owners. The projects are seeking power purchase agreements with Idaho Power under the provisions of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act or PURPA. The federal act requires utilities to buy output from qualified renewable projects at an “avoided-cost rate,” or the rate the utility avoids by not having to generate the power itself or buy it from another source

The Idaho Transportation Department (ITD) has settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over federal asbestos violations at a building demolition site near Priest River in northern Idaho’s Panhandle. According to the EPA, ITD failed to inspect a former commercial building located in Priest River, Idaho for possible asbestos contamination prior to its demolition and failed to notify EPA of its intent to demolish the building. The settlement includes a $51,986 penalty.

The Idaho Office of Drug Policy has awarded a new Cohort of Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) Grants to 6 communities throughout the state. The funds are provided through a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fund community-level substance abuse prevention strategies and to improve local prevention infrastructure

The company’s application to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission states that Murray Water Works has been purchased by the Murray Water Association, a non-profit association with elected board members and a president.

Rocky Mountain Power is asking state regulators for authority to shift variable net power supply costs from a temporary rate mechanism into permanent base rates. If approved, the shift would result in an average 3.9 percent increase to base rates, 2.7 percent for residential customers. The monthly bill for a residential customer using the company’s average of 801 kilowatt-hours per month would increase by about $2.35

Under the agreement, BYU-I will sell the output of its gas- and oil-fueled generating facility on its Rexburg campus to PacifiCorp, which does business as Rocky Mountain Power in eastern Idaho. The plant provides space and water heating to the campus, but also has a companion heat-recovery generating system that can generate up to 5.6 megawatts of electricity.

Idaho Housing and Finance Association releases its 2015 findings from the annual Idaho homeless Point-in-Time Count, which took place this past January 28, 2015. The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires an annual count of sheltered individuals and a biennial count of unsheltered individuals in order to receive federal funding to aid the homeless. Idaho Housing and Finance Association works with service providers and volunteers around the state to coordinate and conduct the annual count

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson today protected Idaho priorities in the House Interior and Environment Appropriations bill for FY16. The bill, which sets out the budget for the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was marked up by the full House Appropriations Committee

In its order approving the transaction, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission said the swap, which will replace outdated sharing agreements between the utilities, will better serve the utilities and their transmission and retail customers

Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson supported final passage of the Fiscal Year 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, which passed the House 216 -210 late last night.  The bill includes Simpson’s language increasing truck weights on Idaho Interstate Highways to 129,000 pounds.

U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) today led a bipartisan group of senators in introducing legislation that would eliminate a costly and redundant U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation affecting pesticide users. The Sensible Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) seeks to clarify congressional intent concerning federal regulation of pesticides and codify longstanding interpretation of regulatory statutes after a 2009 court ruling imposed an additional layer of needless red tape on food producers

Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter came away from a meeting with members of competing water user organizations encouraged and pleased by the progress of their negotiations to resolve a dispute over water drawn from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer

Rates for residential customers of Idaho Power Company decrease slightly on June 1 due to annual updates of two rate adjustments approved by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.