The proposed Lava Ridge wind project in South Central Idaho is one of many massive clean energy developments facing opposition, but according to an environmental reporting outlet, it is the most at-risk nationwide.
Significant opposition has come from those concerned about impacts to the Minidoka National Historic Site, where 13,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War II. In response to those and other concerns, the Bureau of Land Management issued a pared down preferred alternative for the project in June.
It would allow for the construction of 241 turbines, down from 400. Heatmap News noted that a final Environmental Impact Statement is “typically a major step forward for a big energy project.”
Instead, lawsuits were filed and elected officials across the state intensified their opposition.
“If they had spoken to the communities that would be most affected by developing in that area and had done cultural research on the front end, they would have understood just how hard this was going to be,” said Heatmap senior reporter Jael Holzman.
“This is exactly the kind of thing developers should be most concerned about, how a cultural sensitivity that can't pop up in the data can be all it takes to not only trip up one project, but make it really hard to develop anywhere in the state,” she added.
Last month, the project faced another setback when the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation said it could not guarantee that the wind farm wouldn’t negatively impact the former internment camp and would stop working with the BLM to ensure compliance with federal preservation requirements.
Lava Ridge was the only Mountain West project on Heatmap’s top-10 list.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
