Jerome County Commissioners tell the wind farm to blow away

Jerome County Commissioners have issued an emphatic no!  They jointly issued a unanimous document stating their opposition to the Lava Ridge Wind Project.  This is similar to a document issued by their counterparts in Twin Falls County opposing the Salmon Falls Wind project.

 

The Lava Ridge project will stretch across Jerome, Lincoln, and Minidoka Counties.  It would scar the horizon behind the Hunt Camp historic site, home to thousands of internees of Japanese ancestry during World War Two.

 

The wind projects are a bit like playing whack-a-mole.  The Taurus project was recently proposed in Gooding County.

 

These farms would be constructed on Bureau of Land Management grounds and BLM could ignore the guidance of local governments, however.  As I’ve previously written, a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court could establish a precedent.  The court said the Environmental Protection Agency couldn’t rule by decree but needed to wait for action by Congress.  The decision could pull the teeth out of BLM.

 

The massive turbines would stand more than 700 feet above the surface and Lava Ridge would be constructed over an aquifer.  None of the generated power would be slated for Idaho.  It would feed the ravenous energy appetite of southern California and Clark County in Nevada.

 

One of Lincoln County's Commissioners is on record in opposition to the Lava Ridge project. Public opinion is overwhelmingly in opposition.  Counties were promised a large amount of tax revenue.  But one county commissioner recently told me he would expect state legislators to swoop in and grab the monetary windfall.