Legislators send resolutions urging federal review, opposing Lava Ridge wind project

Representatives and senators on the committee voted to send two measures — House Joint Memorial 5 and House Concurrent Resolution 8 — to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation, urging federal review or rejection of the Lava Ridge wind-energy project.

The measures, introduced by Representative Lance Clow and carried in committee by Representative Jack Nelson, ask the U.S. Department of the Interior and the congressional delegation to reconsider approval of a Bureau of Land Management decision that allowed the Lava Ridge project. “Most of the people in the Magic Valley saw it as a tremendous use of federal lands, that would have a very disruptive impact on the Magic Valley,” Representative Clow told the committee. He and other presenters said the project, as approved, would send power out of state while imposing local impacts.

Clow and Nelson said communities near the proposed turbines oppose the project because of roadbuilding, blasting on lava rock and risk to the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer, which they described as the primary water source for local farms. Representative Jack Nelson said local residents worry that “hundreds of miles of roads” and heavy construction would follow and that the project offers little mitigation or local economic benefit. “The most offensive part of this whole thing is absolutely no mitigation to the community at all,” Nelson said.

Sponsors framed HJM 5 as a memorial — a letter to the president and congressional delegation — and HCR 8 as a state legislative statement that the Idaho Legislature opposes the project and asks the governor and attorney general to use available authority to stop it. Clow said the Bureau of Land Management approved the project in December and that a presidential executive order had placed a 90-day moratorium on certain actions while the administration reviews policy, but no final federal decision had been announced.

Senator Taylor moved to send HJM 5 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation; Senator Cole seconded and the motion carried by voice vote. Senator Taylor then moved to send HCR 8 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation; Senator Cole seconded and the motion carried by voice vote.

The measures do not change state law themselves; rather, they are expressions of the Legislature’s position and requests for executive or federal action. Committee proponents emphasized local concerns about water, blasting and community impacts; opponents were not recorded during this item.

The measures will appear next on the Senate floor for further consideration.