Third Baker County jury trial set in B2H power line dispute

Another Baker County jury will decide how much Idaho Power must pay for access to land along the Boardman to Hemingway line, and the outcome could ripple far beyond one property near Huntington. The June 29 trial will be the third Baker County jury case tied to B2H, a 293-mile, 500-kilovolt project that has already produced sharply different valuations from landowners and the utility.

The latest case centers on Bokides Properties LLC of Weiser, Idaho, whose land sits near Huntington at the eastern end of Baker County. Like the earlier trials, the dispute is about condemnation and compensation: what the company should pay for easements and use of private property as it pushes the $1.15 billion transmission line from Boardman in Morrow County to Hemingway in southern Idaho.

Those earlier verdicts set a high-stakes backdrop. In April, a Baker County jury awarded Charles Colton & Sons $182,970 after the owners sought $400,000 and Idaho Power offered $65,870. In March, another jury awarded Mark and Savannah Kerns $56,000 after they asked for $215,694 and the utility offered $27,810. The numbers show why the next trial matters to Baker County landowners: the gap between the company’s offers and what owners say their property rights are worth has been large enough to send case after case to juries.

Idaho Power has filed roughly 15 condemnation lawsuits in Baker County in 2023 and 2024 to secure easements for B2H, and some cases have settled for a combined total of nearly $1 million. The company, in partnership with PacifiCorp, says the line is needed to help meet growing demand for reliable, affordable electricity, especially during summer peaks. Federal land materials describe the approved route as 293.4 miles long, with 100.3 miles crossing federal land.

The line cuts across Baker Valley in a way residents can see and measure, passing near Farewell Bend, crossing Interstate 84, running along the east side of the valley and continuing toward Union County. That geography has turned the project into more than a courthouse fight. It is a visible change to ranchlands, highway corridors and open country many Baker County residents know well.

The legal fight has been years in the making. Oregon’s Energy Facility Siting Council approved the site certificate in September 2022, and the Oregon Supreme Court upheld it in March 2023. Idaho Power says completion is expected in late 2027 or early 2028, and the Oregon Department of Energy lists B2H as under construction.

The project has also drawn broader criticism from opponents who argue its purpose shifted toward serving a single large industrial customer, likely a data center. The Oregon Public Utility Commission denied a request to revoke the permit, but that dispute still hangs over the local land cases. B2H also crosses the Oregon National Historic Trail, and Oregon-California Trails Association materials say seven locations have indirect visual adverse impacts, adding another layer to a fight over who controls the landscape and who pays for changing it.