Bill Description: House Bill 167 would require that at least 75% of the electricity generated or transmitted by infrastructure made possible through eminent domain be offered for sale in Idaho. 

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Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the United States Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the US Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

The practice of eminent domain violates fundamental property rights and, if it can be justified at all, should be reserved only for extreme cases where no reasonable alternative exists. 

Section 7-701, Idaho Code, contains a list of (often questionable) purposes for which the state may exercise eminent domain. Among the items in this list are "electric distribution and transmission lines for the delivery, furnishing, distribution, and transmission of electric current for power, lighting, heating or other purposes; and structures, facilities and equipment for the production, generation, and manufacture of electric current for power, lighting, heating or other purposes."

House Bill 167 amends this subsection to say, "provided that at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the electricity generated therefrom remains for sale within the state of Idaho at Idaho market rate prices in effect at the time of the sale of electricity."

This entire section of code needs significant reform to reduce the unnecessary use of eminent domain. While this bill might reduce the use of eminent domain in some circumstances, such an outcome is far from guaranteed.

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