Says administration should be “ashamed” for efforts surrounding Lava Ridge
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) called out the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its failures in Idaho surrounding the proposed Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.
“I warned everyone when your confirmation was up that if you had someone who had such disrespect for the natural resources of America, for our country, and for my state of Idaho, this was what we were going to see,” said Risch.“You ought to be ashamed. The administration ought to be ashamed. The secretary of the Interior ought to be ashamed. This is awful, awful, awful management of our public lands. This is not multiple-use. This is abuse of our public lands.”
Risch doubled down on the need for the project to be rejected in the Gem State, and once again questioned BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning’s ideology and motives surrounding her work at the agency.
“Nobody wants this,” Risch repeated for the director, who acknowledged there is opposition on the ground. “Every constituent said ‘don’t do this.’ So you didn’t listen!”
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.
