Judge Matt Shirtcliff Rules Idaho Power Retains Authority to Condemn B2H Easements

Judge Matt Shirtcliff issued a written decision filed Feb. 20, 2026 in Baker County Circuit Court finding Idaho Power Co. retains legal authority to secure private easements to construct the Boardman‑to‑Hemingway high‑voltage transmission line, according to the text of the order. The available excerpt of the decision does not identify which specific pleadings or landowner cases the order addresses.

The Boardman‑to‑Hemingway project has been in Idaho Power’s planning for more than a dozen years, and the utility has said it hopes to finish B2H by 2027. The company’s push for private easements has produced multiple eminent domain lawsuits across eastern Oregon, including high‑profile matters in Baker County and neighboring Malheur County.

In the Abbe matter, Tel and Lacey Abbe of the Farewell Bend area successfully won a summary judgment before Shirtcliff on Oct. 29, 2024. Idaho Power filed its condemnation complaint against the Abbes on May 20, 2024; Baker City attorney Andrew Martin filed the Abbes’ motion for summary judgment on July 23, 2024. During an hour‑long hearing Oct. 22, 2024, Martin and Idaho Power attorney Timothy Helfrich argued before Shirtcliff, who told the lawyers he would rule “fairly quickly.” Shirtcliff’s Oct. 29 order granted summary judgment to the Abbes and dismissed Idaho Power’s condemnation complaint without prejudice, finding that the complaint included language referencing “warranties and covenants” that created impermissible “personal obligations.” In the ruling Shirtcliff wrote that “that portion of the complaint is invalid as a matter of law.” Martin argued at the hearing that “Idaho Power has no right to obtain those warranties,” and court filings show the same contested language appeared in Idaho Power’s pre‑suit settlement offer that the utility was required to make at least 40 days before filing.

A separate Baker County action against Scott and Kylie Gressley has produced a different set of rulings. Idaho Power filed its condemnation suit against the Gressleys in September 2023 seeking roughly 14 acres of easements for the line and an access road on the couple’s 2,000‑acre ranch. In a decision reported in early March, Shirtcliff ordered Idaho Power to provide $45,000 for loss of grazing rights and the cost of finding other grazing land, $10,000 for shipping and fuel costs, $10,000 for loss of other uses, and to include the $18,960 Idaho Power had previously offered, bringing the subtotal cited in the opinion to $83,960. Shirtcliff wrote that construction on B2H likely will force the Gressleys to cease grazing cattle on their property for at least one year; court records note the Gressleys run about 200 cow‑calf pairs and roughly eight bulls on the ranch they purchased in September 2022. The judge’s decision in the Gressley matter also states the final amount of compensation will be determined at trial.

Pattern and next steps remain unsettled. Two condemnation suits in Malheur County were dismissed for the same “warranties and covenants” drafting problem, and the Abbe dismissal being without prejudice permits Idaho Power to refile or seek to amend its pleadings. Idaho Power’s stated 2027 project timetable and the Gressley finding that construction could halt grazing for at least a year underscore immediate economic impacts for local ranch operations while litigation over easement language and compensation continues in Baker County courts.