Crapo Celebrates President Trump’s Day One Priority to Block Lava Ridge

Washington, D.C.--U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) issued the following statement in response to President Donald J. Trump signing an executive order on his first day in office to block the Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project.

“President Trump demonstrated on his first day in office his commitment to listening to the valid concerns of Idahoans, Minidoka survivors and descendants, farmers, ranchers and sportsmen.  The previous administration had made a willfully neglectful decision to begin the building of a massive wind energy farm despite widespread and vocal opposition from the local community who would have been most negatively impacted by this terrible project.  Idahoans have a friend in President Trump who will listen to their sound judgement and expertise on local natural resources issues, and I thank him for his leadership.”

In December, the Bureau of Land Management released a Record of Decision for the final Environmental Impact Statement for the Lava Ridge Wind Project, allowing the project to move forward.  Idaho’s Congressional Delegation has introduced legislation and other measures to block the Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project, which would have built hundreds of wind turbines on nearly 100,000 acres of public land in Southern Idaho.  The proposed Lava Ridge project would have visually compromised the Minidoka National Historic Site, a relocation site where more than 13,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.  The project has received repeated, formal and passionate opposition from the Idaho State Legislature, Idaho’s Constitutional Officers, impacted county and city officials and many in the Japanese American Community. 

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