Immediately upon taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that halts all new and renewed approvals, permits, leases, and loans for both onshore and offshore wind projects.
At that time, the move halted continuation of the Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project, which would have turned a stretch of southern Idaho into a sea of ugly wind turbines. This move has brought joy to the people of the state. Local communities completely opposed the project, and the Biden green grift team doubled down on the development.
Now the Department of the Interior has completely rescinded that approval.
The Trump administration on Wednesday canceled a major wind farm development in Idaho, a project approved late in former President Joe Biden’s term that had drawn criticism for its proximity to a historic site where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.The Bureau of Land Management in December signed off on a scaled-down plan for the Lava Ridge Wind Project northeast of Twin Falls, with 241 wind turbines instead of 400. But the development had been on hold since the first day of President Donald Trump’s second term, when he issued an executive order halting the permitting of wind power projects across the country and telling the Interior Department to review the Lava Ridge decision.“By reversing the Biden administration’s thoughtless approval of the Lava Ridge Wind Project, we are protecting tens of thousands of acres from harmful wind policy while shielding the interests of rural Idaho communities,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “This decisive action defends the American taxpayer, safeguards our land, and averts what would have been one of the largest, most irresponsible wind projects in the nation.”
It must be remembered that Biden’s officials completely ignored the outrage from Americans in the surrounding communities as they proceeded to plan the large wind farm.
The project, five years in the works, faced opposition from local residents concerned about the height of the turbines — up to 660 feet (201 meters), or more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. It also drew concerns it would spoil views from the Minidoka National Historic Site, where thousands of Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II.Under the plan, the closest turbine to the historic site would have been 9 miles (14 kilometers) away.Robyn Achilles, executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Minidoka, said in a text message her organization was reviewing the announcement.“We must protect Minidoka from future development, so we continue to seek long term protections for the BLM land in Minidoka’s cultural viewshed,” Achilles wrote.
Hopefully, approvals will soon be pulled for Wyoming’s Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Project, before more eagles and other wildlife populations are harmed irrevocably.
Biologists like Mike Lockhart, who worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for more than 30 years, claim that these large wind farms are more than just an eyesore and will negatively affect wildlife in Wyoming. Raptors, eagles, passerines, bats and various migrating birds frequently collide with the blades, which typically span 165 feet.“Most of the [Wyoming wind energy] development is just going off like a rocket right now, and we already have eagles that are getting killed by wind turbines — a hell of a lot more than people really understand,” warns Lockhart, a highly respected expert on golden eagles….Places with consistent winds, as Lockhart explains, also happen to be prime wildlife habitats and most of the big wind farms in Wyoming are being built before we know enough about what their impact could be on bird populations.In February 2024, FWS updated its permitting process under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, hoping it would help offset some of wind energy’s effects on eagles. The new rules, however, will still allow eagles to die. The new permits for wind turbines won’t even specify the number of eagles allowed to be killed and companies won’t, in fact, be out of compliance even if their wind turbines are responsible for injuring or killing significant numbers of them.
I suspect locals in Wyoming were also ignored.
Meanwhile, the good people of Idaho can celebrate a win.
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