Wind project opposed
As the Biden Administration aimed to fight climate change by permitting 25 gigawatts of renewable energy on public lands within the decade, a company named Magic Valley pitched a wind farm that would be the second-largest in the U.S. and produce up to 1,000 megawatts.
Lava Ridge would erect towering turbines in parts of three counties and double Idaho’s wind energy production.
“There is a tremendous need, a market based need for clean energy in Idaho and across the West ... being requested by utilities, by businesses, by state leaders, and really by many Americans who are trying to get this country toward energy independence,” said Luke Papez, project manager at Magic Valley, a subsidiary of New York-based LS Power. “This is a very good site to locate a project.”
With global warming, wind farms have been framed as avenues to increased economic activity, new local tax revenues — and a vital tool for the White House’s clean energy goals.
“Renewable wind projects are a critical component of the Bidenharris administration’s commitment to confronting climate change, promoting clean air and water for our current and future generations, creating thousands of good-paying union jobs, and jump starting our country’s transition to a clean energy future,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a statement.
Magic Valley now hopes to win BLM approval next year and to begin construction in 2025 and start operations by 2026.
But opposition is nearly universal in the high desert where the company would build hundreds of miles of temporary fencing and roads, plus hundreds of concrete slabs for turbines.
There are fears the isolated landscape that draws travelers will be permanently scarred, explosives used for construction will damage an aquifer — and the project will cast shadows on the desert Minidoka survivors visit.
As the BLM nears a final decision, Minidoka survivors and descendants are declaring the site a place of healing that commemorates traumas their families still struggle to unpack and resolve.
“I don’t mean to take sides in history,” said Idaho Rep. Jack Nelson, a Republican. “But the reason we study history is so we don’t do those things again.”