Idaho’s congressional delegation has spent years battling with the Biden administration and the Bureau of Land Management over the Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project, which would have turned a stretch of southern Idaho into a sea of ugly wind turbines. 

It took one day of a new administration to put the kibosh on the project and it was Idaho Sen. Jim Risch who wrote the executive order that was signed by President Trump. The senator may never have a more joyful assignment from the president. 

Of course, Risch was not writing the order in a vacuum. He had conversations about the project with Trump and the senator emphasized the importance of stopping Lava Ridge during Gov. Doug Burgum’s nomination hearing for Interior secretary. 

Risch probably didn’t need to do much to sway the president to his side. Trump made it clear during his inaugural address, with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris watching, that green new deals would be replaced with “Drill, Baby Drill.” So, it’s unlikely that the president gave much hesitation to putting his name to an executive order to scuttle one of the Biden administration’s pet energy projects. 

For good measure, Risch had plenty of political support from Congressman Mike Simpson, Sen. Mike Crapo and Gov. Brad Little, among others. 

The BLM had its reasons for wanting the turbines. The project northeast of Twin Falls, according to a BLM news release in December, “could power as many as 500,000 homes with clean energy, while creating hundreds of jobs and supporting local and regional economies.” 

Folks were not buying the line. The political response from the delegation and beyond: “Not in our back yard.” They wanted nothing to do with hundreds of wind turbines sitting on nearly 100,000 acres, visually compromising the Minidoka National Historic Site — which served as a relocation for more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II. 

Risch documents numerous battles on the Lava Ridge issue, going back to 2021. During that time, he opposed two nominees for Interior secretary, based on support for Lava Ridge. Risch and his colleagues wrote letters that were ignored. Simpson has a similar history of banging his head against a bureaucratic wall, including putting together legislation to stop Lava Ridge. 

Then, in just one day of Trump 2.0, it all went away with the stroke of the president’s pen. 

“President Trump demonstrated on his first day of office his commitment to listening to the valid concerns of Idahoans, Minidoka survivors and descendants, families, ranchers and sportsmen,” said Crapo. 

Simpson chides the Biden administration for “blatantly” disregarding the voices of Idahoans. “The Lava Ridge wind project is unwanted and has zero place in our state. I stand fully behind President Trump’s decision to end it once and for all.” 

Gov. Brad Little followed the president’s executive order with one of his own — called “Gone with the Lava Ridge Wind Project Act.” 

The star of this show was Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations who used his influence and personal working relationship with Trump to make this executive order happen. The two will have plenty of time to talk about Russia, China and Iran. 

“I made a promise to Idahoans that I would not rest until the Lava Ridge Wind Project was terminated. On day one, President Donald Trump took action to keep that promise,” Risch said. 

“Lava Ridge has been the embodiment of liberals’ disregard for the voices of Idahoans and rural America,” he said. “Despite intense and widespread opposition from Idaho and the Japanese American community, the previous administration remained dead set on pushing this unwanted project across the finish line. Finally, our nation has a leader who recognizes that people on the ground should have a say in how our natural resources are managed.” 

Not all of Trump’s executive orders on day one had such a warm reaction, but this one put smiles on the faces of Idahoans — and the political leaders who found a way to kill it. 

• • •

Silver Valley native Chuck Malloy is a longtime Idaho journalist and columnist. He may be reached at ctmalloy@outlook.com.