Senators Question Federal Lands Chief on How Idaho Wind Farm Got OK Over Local Objections

The Bureau of Land Management director defended the agency’s approval of a 4,500-acre wind farm over vehement county, state opposition.

A wind farm sprawls across a valley on the western slopes of the Medicine Bow range in Wyoming in August 2022. John Haughey/The Epoch Times

An Idaho wind project has been tentatively approved by the federal government over overwhelming opposition from local residents, seven county governments, and the state legislature, raising questions about who, or what, is driving land-use policy on public lands across the West.

If there’s one thing that’s certain, people who live and work in south-central Idaho had no say in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) June 7 final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that green lights the Lava Ridge wind project, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) said.