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

A controversial Idaho wind project has been tentatively approved by the federal government despite 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, says Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho). During a two-hour June 13 hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Mr. Risch and others repeatedly cited the Lava Ridge EIS approval as an example not only of federal overreach but of ignoring local concerns in approving renewable energy proposals from green energy corporations....