WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) demanded the Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland provide a list of supporters for the Lava Ridge energy project in Idaho. His exchange happened during the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Department of the Interior for Fiscal Year 2025.
Upon the Senator’s repeated questions, Secretary Haaland acknowledged she was unable to provide him with any person or group in support of the project. He followed up with asking what the secretary would do once she sees this small list of support. He said, “Suppose you find what I’m telling you is true, and that is: There are tens of thousands, perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of Idahoans, who are opposed to this, and a very small handful of people who support this. What do you do about that?” The secretary would not commit to listening to the will of Idahoans and claimed her agency will combine this feedback with science and data to “come to a final decision about the issue.”
Senator Risch pushed further asking if she would be moved by the opposition.“But you are not going to commit that you will abandon this if indeed the situation is that nobody in Idaho wants this?” The secretary deflected.
“The people of Idaho do not like this project. I don’t like it either,” said Risch. “But, the people of Idaho do not like this project, and not by one or two. But I’m telling you, there’s nobody here. You cannot even name one person that you think is not opposed to it. . . Look, don’t do this. Your own agency has said don’t do this. The people of Idaho said don’t do this. Don’t do this.”
Senator Risch led the Idaho delegation in introducing S. 3122, the Don’t DO IT Act, which would require the Secretary of the Interior deny any wind or solar energy project proposed on public land that is disapproved of by the State legislature. Idaho’s State legislature unanimously passed a resolution in March 2023 expressing opposition to the Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project in Southern Idaho, a 370 turbine project spanning 146,000 acres. Among other concerns, the proposed Lava Ridge project would visually compromise the Minidoka National Historic Site, a relocation site where more than 13,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War Two.
