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Education, Advocacy and Activism

Free training, tools and resources for journalists, advocates, activists and campaigns, with a focus on Idaho transparency, civic data and liberty.

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⚡ Training: Energy, Land and Water

12 learning modules. This page updates itself when items move between sections.

How the power grid, generation and water rights work, with the arithmetic shown: the grid, renewables and storage, nuclear and small reactors, natural gas, the western grid projects, southern Idaho energy fights, limiting industrial energy projects through local code, and water, land and agriculture.

In this section
  1. How the Power Grid Works Learning Module
  2. Alternative Energy: Hydro, Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Storage Learning Module
  3. Nuclear Power Learning Module
  4. Natural Gas Power Learning Module
  5. Battery Energy Storage Systems: How They Work, Fail and Burn Learning Module
  6. Supplemental Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors Learning Module
  7. Western Grid Projects: CAISO, Markets, SWIP-N and Hemingway Learning Module
  8. Southern Idaho Energy Issues Learning Module
  9. Limiting Industrial Energy Projects Through Local Code Learning Module
  10. Water, Land and Agriculture Learning Module
  11. Water Rights and Agricultural Land Use for Idaho Residents Learning Module
  12. Idaho's Public Lands: How Federal and State Land Really Gets Managed, and How to Have a Say Learning Module

🔌 How the Power Grid Works Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Learn the units, machines, markets and regulators behind the electric grid, read a power bill line by line, and understand a utility's resource plan or rate case well enough to take part and ask sharp questions. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 8 lessons.

What is included: 8 lessons and pages
  1. Electricity Units: Volts, Watts and Kilowatt-Hours 14 min
    Learn the handful of units behind every energy debate, convert between them with simple arithmetic, and see why 'powers 50,000 homes' is a slippery claim.
  2. From Power Plant to Outlet 15 min
    Follow electricity from the generator through step-up transformers, high-voltage lines, substations and neighborhood wires to the wall, and learn why the whole system hums at 60 hertz.
  3. Balancing Supply and Demand Every Second 15 min
    See how grid operators match generation to demand moment by moment using load forecasts, a stack of baseload, intermediate and peaking plants, reserves and the inertia of spinning machines.
  4. Capacity vs. Energy and Capacity Factor 16 min
    Use EIA's 2025 capacity factors to compare what different plant types actually produce, and learn why a megawatt of solar, wind, gas and nuclear are not the same thing.
  5. Who Runs the Grid 17 min
    Sort out investor-owned utilities, co-ops, city utilities and federal power, learn what balancing authorities and RTOs do, and get current on the West's market changes: the Western EIM, EDAM and Markets+.
  6. Who Regulates the Grid 16 min
    Learn what FERC, NERC and state commissions like the Idaho PUC each control, and follow a general rate case from filing to final order using Idaho Power's 2025 case as a real example.
  7. How Your Power Bill Is Built 15 min
    Take a power bill apart line by line: the fixed service charge, energy charges, demand charges, rate classes and the fuel and power cost adjustments that change bills between rate cases.
  8. Reliability and the Grid's Future 18 min
    Learn what causes blackouts, what the 2021 and 2022 winter storms showed, what NERC's 2025 long-term assessment projects as data centers and electrification drive demand, and how to read a utility's integrated resource plan.
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☀️ Alternative Energy: Hydro, Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Storage Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

How dams, turbines, solar panels, geothermal wells and batteries actually make or store electricity, what each costs and what each leaves behind, with the arithmetic shown. You will be able to check a capacity factor, rework an LCOE, read a lifecycle emissions table and test a new energy claim before you repeat it. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. Hydropower: Dams, Rivers and Water Years 18 min
    How storage dams, run-of-river plants and pumped storage turn falling water into electricity, why output swings with snowpack, and how much Idaho and the Northwest lean on it, using EIA data.
  2. Wind: The Cube Law, Capacity Factors and Siting 19 min
    How a turbine pulls power from moving air, why doubling wind speed gives eight times the power, what capacity factors really say, and the wildlife, land and transmission fights that decide where wind gets built.
  3. Solar PV: Cells, Inverters, Rooftops and Fields 19 min
    How a silicon cell turns light into current, what inverters do, how utility-scale and rooftop solar differ in cost and output, how much land a solar farm takes, and why net metering fights keep landing at utility commissions.
  4. Geothermal: Conventional Plants and Enhanced Systems 17 min
    How flash, dry steam and binary plants turn underground heat into electricity, why enhanced geothermal borrows drilling tricks from oil and gas, what Fervo's Cape Station did in 2026, and the seismic and water questions to ask.
  5. Batteries and Storage: Power, Energy, Duration and Fire 19 min
    The difference between megawatts and megawatt-hours, why most grid batteries hold four hours, how LFP and NMC chemistries compare, what round-trip efficiency costs, what EPRI's failure data and the Moss Landing fire show about safety, and the other ways to store power.
  6. Intermittency and Integration: Duck Curves, Curtailment and Firming 20 min
    Why variable wind and solar change how a grid runs, what the duck curve and curtailment numbers in California show, the tools grids use to absorb large shares, and what optimistic and skeptical studies say about the cost of going high.
  7. What Energy Costs: LCOE, System Costs and Tax Credits 20 min
    How levelized cost of energy is calculated, with a worked example you can redo, what Lazard and EIA estimated in 2026, why LCOE leaves out the cost of reliability and transmission, and how the 2025 federal tax law changed wind, solar and other credits.
  8. Lifecycle Impacts: Mining, Manufacturing, Recycling and Emissions per kWh 19 min
    What it takes to build wind, solar and batteries, where the minerals come from and who refines them, what happens at end of life, and how lifecycle emissions per kilowatt-hour compare across sources in the IPCC and NREL harmonization numbers.
  9. Hydrogen, Emerging Options and How to Judge a New Energy Claim 18 min
    How hydrogen is made, stored and used, why its round trip loses most of the energy, what happened to federal hydrogen hubs and credits in 2025, a quick look at other emerging options, and a step-by-step test for any breakthrough energy announcement.
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Open Alternative Energy: Hydro, Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Storage ↗

⚛️ Nuclear Power Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Understand how reactors work, what the fuel, waste, safety and cost records actually show, and where small modular reactors and federal rules stood in October 2026, so you can weigh nuclear projects with real numbers. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. How fission makes heat 14 min
    Atoms, uranium-235, the chain reaction, moderators and control rods, and why a power reactor cannot blow up like a bomb.
  2. Reactor types side by side 15 min
    Pressurized water, boiling water, CANDU, gas-cooled, fast and molten salt reactors compared on fuel, coolant, moderator and track record.
  3. The fuel cycle: from ore to fuel rod 15 min
    Mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, LEU versus HALEU, fuel fabrication, where U.S. uranium comes from and the ban on Russian imports.
  4. Small modular and advanced reactors, October 2026 17 min
    Where NuScale, TerraPower, X-energy, the BWRX-300, Oklo and Kairos stand in licensing and construction, and what the tech company power deals actually commit to.
  5. Idaho's nuclear history 15 min
    From EBR-I's four light bulbs in 1951 to the SL-1 accident, the Advanced Test Reactor, MARVEL and the 2026 test reactor race at Idaho National Laboratory.
  6. Safety record, accidents and radiation doses 18 min
    Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima with sourced death tolls, deaths per terawatt-hour across energy sources, and radiation doses in everyday terms.
  7. Spent fuel and nuclear waste 17 min
    What spent fuel is, how pools and dry casks work, the Yucca Mountain stalemate, Idaho's 1995 settlement agreement with DOE, and the arguments over reprocessing.
  8. Costs and timelines: Vogtle and the SMR bet 16 min
    How Vogtle 3 and 4 went from $14 billion to about $35 billion, why nuclear projects overrun, and what SMR advocates and skeptics each argue.
  9. Who regulates nuclear power and how 16 min
    The NRC, its licensing paths, the ADVANCE Act of 2024, the May 2025 executive orders, and where to find the documents behind any reactor project.
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🔥 Natural Gas Power Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Learn where natural gas comes from, how it moves and becomes electricity, what it costs and emits, and what each side gets right in the fights over new gas plants and pipelines. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 8 lessons.

What is included: 8 lessons and pages
  1. What natural gas is and where it comes from 14 min
    Methane in rock, conventional versus shale, how horizontal drilling and fracking work, and where US gas is produced.
  2. Moving gas: pipelines, storage and LNG 15 min
    How gas gets from the wellhead to a power plant, who regulates each piece, and how the Northwest is supplied.
  3. Turning gas into power: turbines, combined cycle and engines 15 min
    How simple-cycle turbines, combined-cycle plants and reciprocating engines work, what heat rate means, and how fast each can respond.
  4. Gas in the grid: share, coal, renewables and data centers 15 min
    How gas became the largest US power source, what jobs it does next to solar and wind, and why data centers set off a rush for new gas plants.
  5. Prices and volatility: Henry Hub, basis and your power bill 14 min
    How gas is priced, why regional prices split from the benchmark, what drives winter spikes, and how fuel costs reach electric bills.
  6. Emissions: CO2, methane leaks, NOx and air permits 16 min
    What burning gas emits compared with coal, how methane leakage changes the climate math, and how local air permits for gas plants work.
  7. Safety and local impacts: pipelines, compressors, well sites and land 14 min
    What goes wrong with gas infrastructure, how often, what neighbors live with, and how eminent domain works for pipelines.
  8. The debates: bridge or lock-in, cold snaps, and gas versus storage 17 min
    The strongest case on each side of the big natural gas arguments, what the evidence settles and what it leaves open.
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🔋 Battery Energy Storage Systems: How They Work, Fail and Burn Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Learn what grid batteries are for, how chemistries, sizes and parts compare, how the battery management system keeps cells in line and what happens when it doesn't, then read the real record of battery fires, how they are fought, what they leave behind and what a county can require before one is built. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. What Grid Batteries Do and Who Pays Them 15 min
    The jobs a battery energy storage system sells to the grid, from arbitrage and solar shifting to capacity and frequency regulation, what EIA's data says U.S. batteries actually do, and why a battery's purpose tells you its size, duration and location.
  2. Battery Chemistries: LFP, NMC, Sodium-Ion, Flow and the Rest 16 min
    How the main grid battery chemistries differ in what burns, what gas they give off, how long they last and how mature they are, including the research finding that LFP off-gas can reach its flammable limit in a smaller space than NMC, and why EPRI could not pin failures on chemistry alone.
  3. Sizes: From a Garage Wall to a 1,200 MWh Plant 14 min
    How battery systems scale from home units measured in kilowatt-hours to utility plants measured in hundreds of megawatt-hours, what the average U.S. grid battery looks like, where the fire code's size thresholds fall, and how to turn a press release into stored energy per acre.
  4. Inside a BESS: Cells to Containers, Inverters to Fire Systems 16 min
    A tour of every major part of a battery energy storage system, from the cell up through modules, racks, enclosures, power conversion, cooling, gas detection, fire suppression, explosion control and the energy management system, with what each part does and a real incident where it mattered.
  5. The Battery Management System: The Part That Knows Each Cell 19 min
    What a battery management system measures, estimates and controls, from cell voltages and temperatures to state of charge, state of health, balancing and protective disconnects, what Idaho's adopted fire code requires of it, and what has happened in real incidents when monitoring and protection were off or wrong.
  6. Failure Modes and Thermal Runaway: Heat, Gas, Fire and Explosion 18 min
    How lithium-ion battery systems fail, what happens inside a cell during thermal runaway, which gases come out, why the same failure can end as a slow fire or a sudden deflagration, how explosion control works, and what EPRI's root cause analysis says about why systems fail.
  7. The Fire Record: Notable BESS Fires and Where the List Lives 18 min
    A dated table of notable battery energy storage fires from Arizona in 2019 through Moss Landing, Otay Mesa, Melba, Idaho and the 2026 incidents, how EPRI's BESS Failure Incident Database is built and what it leaves out, and how to read the claim that failure rates fell 98 percent.
  8. Codes, Standards and How Battery Fires Are Fought 19 min
    The standards that govern battery systems (UL 9540, UL 9540A, NFPA 855 and the International Fire Code) and their current editions, what Idaho's statewide 2018 fire code does and does not cover, and how fire departments actually fight battery fires: defensive tactics, letting units burn, cooling neighbors, gas monitoring, evacuation and shelter orders.
  9. Environmental Damage, Cleanup and What a County Can Require 19 min
    What battery fires release into air, soil and water, what testing after Moss Landing actually found and where findings differ, how cleanup and recycling work, what happens at end of life, and what an Idaho county can require of a battery project before and after it is built.
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🔬 Supplemental Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Learn what small modular reactors and microreactors are, which designs exist and what each is for, where projects and Idaho National Laboratory work stood in October 2026, and how cooling water, fuel, safety rules and spent fuel storage actually work. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. What makes a reactor small or modular 15 min
    The size lines that separate large reactors, small modular reactors and microreactors, what 'modular' really means, and why thermal and electric megawatts get mixed up in sales pitches.
  2. SMR types and what each one is for 17 min
    Light-water, sodium-cooled, helium-cooled, salt and heat-pipe reactors, the named designs in each family, and which jobs (grid power, industrial heat, data centers, remote sites, military bases) each family is built to do.
  3. Manufacturers and where each stands with regulators 16 min
    A vendor-by-vendor table of SMR and microreactor makers with their NRC, DOE or Canadian regulatory status as of October 2026, and how to check any of it yourself on nrc.gov.
  4. Projects planned, deals signed and the cost record 18 min
    Where the North American SMR projects stand in October 2026, which data center and military deals are firm, what the first real cost numbers show, and the strongest case on each side.
  5. SMR and microreactor work at Idaho National Laboratory 19 min
    What is actually happening at INL in 2026: the DOME and MARVEL test beds, the Reactor Pilot Program criticality race, Aalo, Oklo's Aurora, Project Pele, HALEU recovery from EBR-II fuel and the national reactor innovation program, with dates.
  6. Safety, emergency planning zones and the new NRC rules 18 min
    How passive safety is supposed to work in each SMR family, what the skeptics say, how the NRC's 2023 rule lets emergency planning zones shrink, and where Part 53 and the proposed Part 57 microreactor rule stood in October 2026.
  7. Cooling options and water use 18 min
    Why every reactor, including gas-cooled ones, has to throw away most of its heat, how once-through, cooling tower, pond, dry and hybrid systems compare in gallons per megawatt-hour, what dry cooling costs in lost output, and what the Kemmerer Natrium plant will draw.
  8. Fuel types and the HALEU supply problem 17 min
    LEU pellets, HALEU metal fuel, TRISO particles, hydride fuel and fuel dissolved in salt, which reactors use each, and why the supply of high-assay low-enriched uranium is the bottleneck for most advanced designs as of October 2026.
  9. Spent fuel, on-site storage and Idaho's limits 18 min
    How spent fuel from SMRs differs by fuel type, what the 2022 Stanford-led study found about SMR waste volumes, how dry cask storage works at a reactor site, and what Idaho's 1995 settlement agreement and its later amendments mean for reactors at INL.
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Open Supplemental Nuclear: Small Modular Reactors ↗

🗼 Western Grid Projects: CAISO, Markets, SWIP-N and Hemingway Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Learn who runs the Western grid, how CAISO's markets and the new independent board over them work, which market Idaho's utilities chose, how transmission costs reach a bill, and where SWIP-N, Boardman to Hemingway and Gateway West stand as of October 2026, with the companies, the advocacy groups and the Idaho decisions behind each. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. Three Grids, Seven Market Operators, and a West That Never Joined 16 min
    Place Idaho on the national map: the three U.S. interconnections, the seven RTOs and ISOs, and the balancing authorities and transmission owners that actually run the grid in Idaho as of October 2026.
  2. CAISO, How It Pays for Lines, and the New Board Above Its Markets 26 min
    What the California ISO is and who governs it, how its planning process and Transmission Access Charge pay for lines like SWIP-N, and how the Pathways Initiative and AB 825 led to the Regional Organization for Western Energy (ROWE), as of October 2026.
  3. EDAM, Markets+ and Which Way Idaho Went 17 min
    Where each utility serving Idaho stands in the West's market split as of October 2026, how market results reach an Idaho bill, and what the Idaho PUC can and cannot do about a utility's market choice.
  4. How a Transmission Line Gets Into Your Bill 21 min
    Follow a transmission dollar from a certificate to a rate case to a residential bill, sort out what FERC and the Idaho PUC each decide, and work the arithmetic of a line's annual revenue requirement.
  5. SWIP-N: Who Owns It, Who Runs It, Who Pays 23 min
    The Southwest Intertie Project-North as of October 2026: route, the 1994 BLM Record of Decision, the CAISO and Idaho Power capacity split, the FERC orders of 2025 and 2026, the Idaho PUC certificate case, the Lava Ridge connection, and construction status.
  6. SWIP-N in Jerome County: A Permit Fight, Step by Step 19 min
    How SWIP-N's special use permit moved through Jerome County in 2025, what the appeals argued, what the county commission decided and remanded, and what the case teaches about local power over a federally approved line.
  7. Hemingway: Boardman to Hemingway and Gateway West 19 min
    The Hemingway substation near Melba and the lines converging on it as of October 2026: the Boardman to Hemingway 500 kV line under construction, its owners, cost protections and opponents, and the Gateway West segments planned across southern Idaho.
  8. The Companies and Agencies Behind the Lines 15 min
    A reference table of the utilities, developers, market operators and federal agencies involved in Idaho's big transmission projects as of October 2026: who owns whom, what each holds, who regulates it and where its records are.
  9. The Advocacy Groups and How They Work Idaho Government 19 min
    Who lobbies, intervenes and testifies on Idaho's big grid projects, on every side, and the documented record of how they have engaged the Idaho PUC, the Legislature, the governor, the attorney general and county commissions through October 2026.
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Quote Verification Last Ran (October 27, 2026)

Open Western Grid Projects: CAISO, Markets, SWIP-N and Hemingway ↗

🗺️ Southern Idaho Energy Issues Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Get current on the energy and data center fights across southern Idaho as of October 2026: SWIP-N, the cancelled Lava Ridge wind project and how it could return, data center proposals from Kuna to Cassia County, big solar, new gas plants and the Elmore County docket, with every status dated and sourced. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 8 lessons.

What is included: 8 lessons and pages
  1. The Southern Idaho Build-Out at a Glance 16 min
    A dated map of every major energy and data center proposal in southern Idaho covered by this course, what stage each one is in as of October 2026, and which body decides it.
  2. SWIP-N on the Ground 18 min
    What the SWIP-North transmission line means locally in southern Idaho as of October 2026: what was approved, what is being built, what the PUC left for later, and where residents still have a say.
  3. Lava Ridge: What Was Approved and How It Was Stopped 15 min
    The documented record of the Lava Ridge Wind Project from the December 2024 Record of Decision through the January 2025 presidential memorandum and Interior's August 2025 reversal, with the arguments each side made.
  4. How Lava Ridge Could Come Back 16 min
    The legal and practical routes by which Lava Ridge or a project like it could return: a policy change, a new application, a lawsuit, or a move to private and state land, plus the tax credit deadlines and grid facts that make each route harder or easier as of October 2026.
  5. Data Centers in Idaho: Built, Proposed and Stalled 17 min
    Every significant data center operating or proposed in southern Idaho as of October 2026, from Meta in Kuna to proposals on BLM land, with the Idaho Power forecast and large-load case that decide who pays for the power.
  6. The Cassia County Data Center Proposal 15 min
    What the public record shows about TerraVolt's planned gas-powered data center campus in southeast Idaho, which a third-party tracker places in Cassia County: the company's SEC filings, its gas contract, its finances and what it still needs as of October 2026.
  7. The Big Solar Question 16 min
    The search for a reported 15,009-acre southern Idaho solar project, what turned up instead, and the largest verified solar proposals in the region with their acreage, megawatts, tax treatment and decommissioning bonds as of October 2026.
  8. Elmore County and the Rest of the Magic Valley 17 min
    The energy projects filed or planned in Elmore County and across the Magic Valley as of October 2026: Idaho Power's Peregrine and South Hills gas plants, the Mayfield substation, solar and wind permits, pumped storage and federal-land proposals, with the dockets where residents can still weigh in.
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Open Southern Idaho Energy Issues ↗

🌾 Limiting Industrial Energy Projects Through Local Code Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

An advocacy course on protecting farmland, small communities and public land from utility-scale solar, wind, battery storage and transmission through Idaho planning and zoning: plan language, districts and tiers, hard standards, bonds, moratoriums, public land limits, the other side's best arguments and how code gets adopted. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. The Case for Limits, and Who Controls What 14 min
    Why this course argues for firm local limits on industrial-scale energy projects, which government controls which kind of land in Idaho, and the set of tools a county actually has.
  2. Comprehensive Plan Language That Holds Up 15 min
    Which components of an Idaho comprehensive plan carry energy siting policy, how to write policy that zoning can lean on, how to quote state policy accurately, and how a plan amendment gets adopted.
  3. Zoning Districts, Overlays and Size Tiers 16 min
    How to turn plan policy into a use table, an overlay zone and a tiered classification by size, with an anti-splitting rule so a large project cannot slip through as several small ones.
  4. Setbacks, Height, Noise and Glare Standards 17 min
    The measurable standards that do most of the protective work: setbacks from homes, wells and canals, height limits, noise limits at the property line, shadow flicker caps, glare and lighting, with the arithmetic to check an applicant's numbers.
  5. Fire and Battery Storage Safety Standards 15 min
    How to write battery storage and wildfire rules a fire district can enforce: size classes in MWh, zones, setbacks, NFPA 855 and fire code compliance, hazard and emergency plans, inspections and groundwater protection.
  6. Protecting Farmland and Capping Cumulative Impact 17 min
    How to write a soil-based farmland protection rule that names the right NRCS data, what the soil and property value research actually shows, and how to cap the combined effect of many projects instead of judging each one alone.
  7. Decommissioning Plans and Bonds 16 min
    How to make sure a project that stops running gets removed and the land restored at the owner's expense: triggers, deadlines, removal depth, cost estimates, salvage value, the 150 percent rule, inflation updates and the forms of security that actually pay.
  8. Moratoriums, and the Limits on Public Land 17 min
    What Idaho law allows when a county needs time to write rules, how emergency and interim moratoriums differ, and what a county can and cannot control on BLM land, state endowment land and transmission routes.
  9. The Other Side's Best Arguments, and Getting Code Adopted 18 min
    The strongest arguments against local limits (landowner rights, tax revenue, state preemption, takings, vague standards) with the best answers to each, then the steps, notice rules and record that get an energy ordinance adopted and keep it standing.
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💧 Water, Land and Agriculture Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Learn how Western water rights, Idaho's water agencies, irrigation, groundwater rules, land use planning and farm economics actually work, with the unit math shown. You will be able to read a water right record, follow a curtailment order or zoning hearing, and understand fairly who gets water and land when new users show up. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 9 lessons.

What is included: 9 lessons and pages
  1. First in Time: How Western Water Rights Work 16 min
    Learn prior appropriation, priority dates, beneficial use and forfeiture, and how the Western system differs from the riparian law used in the East.
  2. Who Runs Idaho Water: IDWR, the Board and the Adjudications 15 min
    Meet the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the Water Resource Board, learn what the Snake River Basin Adjudication settled, and see how permits, licenses, decrees and domestic exemptions fit together.
  3. One Water: Conjunctive Management and the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer 18 min
    Follow how Idaho manages wells and rivers as one connected supply, how the Surface Water Coalition delivery call produces curtailment orders each year, and what mitigation plans, settlements and recharge do.
  4. How Irrigation Works: Canals, Acre-Feet and Efficiency 17 min
    Learn who runs canals, how water is measured in cfs and acre-feet, how to convert between them, and why sprinkler efficiency changes where water goes more than how much a crop uses.
  5. Groundwater, Wells and Water Quality 17 min
    Learn how wells draw down an aquifer, what nitrate results mean and how to avoid the most common unit trap, and how dairies and other feeding operations are regulated by ISDA, EPA, DEQ and counties.
  6. Land Use: Plans, Zoning, Permits and Farmland 18 min
    Learn how Idaho's Local Land Use Planning Act works, from the comp plan to zoning, conditional use permits, written decisions and appeals, plus right to farm, conservation easements and the honest arguments over farmland conversion.
  7. Farm Economics: Markets, Programs, Land Values and Who Owns the Ground 17 min
    Read Idaho's Census of Agriculture numbers, see how crop and dairy income, federal farm programs and land values fit together, and check claims about who owns farmland.
  8. New Claims on Old Water: Data Centers, Energy and Farmland 17 min
    See how a data center, solar field or other new user actually gets water and land in a fully claimed Western basin, and do the math that turns a company's gallons-per-day claim into acres of farmland.
  9. Reading Water Right Records and IDWR Maps 16 min
    Use IDWR's search and map tools to find a water right, decode its elements and legal land description, trace transfers and wells, and describe the record accurately in plain language.
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Quote Verification Last Ran (October 27, 2026)

Open Water, Land and Agriculture ↗

📘 Water Rights and Agricultural Land Use for Idaho Residents Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

How water and farmland are governed in Idaho: prior appropriation, the Idaho Department of Water Resources, water right basics (priority, beneficial use, forfeiture, transfers), domestic wells, the Snake River Basin Adjudication, Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer curtailment and settlements, irrigation districts and canal companies, agricultural land in county zoning, right-to-farm law, and how to look up rights and comment on applications. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 10 lessons.

What is included: 10 lessons and pages
  1. Water in Idaho: Prior Appropriation Basics 22 min
    Who owns Idaho's water, what first in time, first in right means, why beneficial use is the measure of a right, and how ground water and surface water fit together.
  2. IDWR and How Water Is Administered 22 min
    What the Idaho Department of Water Resources does, how water districts and watermasters deliver water by priority, what the Water Resource Board does, and how orders, hearings and appeals work.
  3. Water Right Basics: Priority, Beneficial Use and Forfeiture 24 min
    The elements of a water right, the difference between claims, permits, licenses and decrees, and how forfeiture after five years of non-use works, with the statutory exceptions.
  4. Transfers, Changes and New Applications 24 min
    How to change a water right under Idaho Code 42-222, the no injury and no enlargement tests, how an application for a new permit is noticed, how neighbors protest, and what the timelines and fees depend on.
  5. Domestic Wells and Exempt Uses 20 min
    What Idaho's domestic exemption lets a homeowner do without a permit, the 2025 and 2026 changes for subdivisions, how drilling permits and licensed drillers fit in, and where the exemption stops.
  6. The Snake River Basin Adjudication and Looking Up Rights 22 min
    What a general water right adjudication is, how the Snake River Basin Adjudication ran from 1987 to 2014, what is still being adjudicated, and how to find and read a water right record.
  7. The Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer: Curtailment and Settlements 24 min
    How ground water pumping and river flows are linked on the Eastern Snake Plain, how a delivery call and curtailment work under the Conjunctive Management Rules, and what the 2015 settlement, mitigation and managed recharge do.
  8. Irrigation Districts, Canal Companies and Ditch Rights 24 min
    Who delivers irrigation water to a field or a rural lot: irrigation districts under Title 43, canal and mutual companies, assessments and liens, ditch easements and rights-of-way, relocating or piping a ditch, seepage and waste liability, and who to talk to.
  9. Agricultural Land in County Zoning and Right to Farm 24 min
    How counties plan and zone farmland under the Local Land Use Planning Act, what Idaho's right-to-farm law protects and where it stops, how nuisance claims work, how large animal feeding operations are sited, what a conservation easement is, and what a neighbor can and cannot do.
  10. Commenting on Applications and Taking Part 26 min
    How to follow IDWR notices and file a protest, watch the Idaho Water Resource Board and county hearings, write a comment that a decision maker can use, understand standing, make records requests, and keep a one-page tracker, with a table of verified figures and three diagrams.
moduleissues and advocacy training

Quote Verification Last Ran (October 27, 2026)

Open Water Rights and Agricultural Land Use for Idaho Residents ↗

📘 Idaho's Public Lands: How Federal and State Land Really Gets Managed, and How to Have a Say Learning Module

Free lessons with sources, a short quiz and progress saved in your browser.

Who owns and manages every kind of land in Idaho, how the state endowment trust and the Land Board work, how leases and auctions are run, how the Forest Service and the BLM plan, what NEPA requires after the 2025 changes, exactly how to comment, object and protest, where the money and politics are, and how to report on a public lands decision from the record. A module of Issues and Advocacy Training, 10 lessons.

What is included: 10 lessons and pages
  1. Who Owns Idaho: Federal, State, Tribal and Private Land 30 min
    Acres by owner, which agency runs which piece, why Idaho's ownership map looks like a patchwork, and how to find out who owns a specific parcel.
  2. The Endowment Trust: Idaho's 2.5 Million Acres Held for Schools and Other Beneficiaries 35 min
    Where the state trust lands came from, what Article IX says about maximum long-term financial return, which beneficiaries get the money, how the funds flow, and what happened to the 2026 proposals to change the rule.
  3. The Land Board in Action: Meetings, Votes, Sales and Exchanges 35 min
    The five-member State Board of Land Commissioners, how a meeting runs, how items move from consent to action, how to watch and testify, and two worked cases: the Driggs 160 sale and the Payette Lake exchange.
  4. Leases, Auctions and Conflict Bids on Idaho Endowment Land 30 min
    How the Idaho Department of Lands leases endowment land for grazing, cottage sites, commerce, minerals and energy, how rents and bids are set, how a conflict auction works under Idaho Code 58-310, and what the courts settled.
  5. How the Forest Service Plans: Forest Plans, Projects, Objections and the 2026 Restructure 30 min
    How Idaho's national forests are planned and decided: the National Forest Management Act, forest plans, project decisions, roadless rules, the new objection and NEPA rules, Good Neighbor Authority, and what the 2026 Forest Service restructure and its court stay mean for Idaho, as of October 2026.
  6. How the BLM Plans: FLPMA, Resource Management Plans, Grazing, Rights-of-Way and Leasing 30 min
    How the Bureau of Land Management plans and decides on Idaho's nearly 12 million acres: FLPMA, resource management plans and protests, the Taylor Grazing Act and grazing permits, the 2026 fee, the rescinded 2024 Public Lands Rule, rights-of-way such as SWIP-N and Gateway West, energy leasing, land sales and exchanges, and sage-grouse plans, as of October 2026.
  7. NEPA After 2025: What the Law Still Requires and What Changed 28 min
    The National Environmental Policy Act in October 2026: the statute, the 2023 amendments, the end of the CEQ regulations, the new USDA and Interior procedures, the Seven County decision, the Upper Big Wood timber project, emergency authorities, who can sue, and Endangered Species Act consultation in Idaho.
  8. How to Comment, Object and Protest on Public Land Decisions 30 min
    Step by step: finding open projects, writing a comment that counts, the Forest Service objection process under the new 36 CFR 218, BLM protests and grazing appeals, the Interior Board of Land Appeals, court deadlines, and the Idaho state routes through the Land Board, IDAPA rulemaking and lake encroachment permits.
  9. The Money and the Politics of Idaho's Public Lands 32 min
    Where the money goes: PILT and Secure Rural Schools payments to counties, endowment distributions to schools, Good Neighbor Authority, wildfire and agency budgets, and the land transfer and sale debates with each side's strongest sourced case.
  10. Reporting on Public Lands: Records, Documents and Numbers 34 min
    How to read a decision notice, a lease file and a Land Board packet, how to request records under federal FOIA and the Idaho Public Records Act, the online tools that hold the paper, the number mistakes to avoid, and a verified-figures table with an ownership graphic.
moduleissues and advocacy training

Quote Verification Last Ran (October 27, 2026)

Open Idaho's Public Lands: How Federal and State Land Really Gets Managed, and How to Have a Say ↗

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