Podcast: Opposition to the Lava Ridge Wind Project with Sen. Jim Risch

Melissa Davlin, Idaho Reports:

Senator, thank you so much for joining us today. You know, I think for people who aren’t familiar with the Magic Valley, it’s easy to dismiss this area as isolated desert, or these concerns as NIMBYism — Not In My Back Yard — but it’s a little bit more complex than that. What are you hearing from your constituents?

U.S. Sen. Jim Risch:

Well, they are unanimously opposed to it. Only a handful that we’ve been able to identify in favor of it are the people that have a financial interest. But you know, Magic Valley is a vibrant community. You say isolated, I mean, it’s a ways away from the Treasure Valley, certainly. But it’s much like the Treasure Valley only smaller. It’s a large agricultural presence there. Good people. People that like outdoors kind of things. And look, they’re Idahoans and I really don’t think of them as any different than Treasure Valley people.

I can tell you, they are unanimously opposed to this. You know, we get a lot of calls and emails and letters and that sort of thing, and we track them very closely, and very seldom do we see an issue like this that has the community pulled together unanimously like this. You know, we’re talking about – obviously, we deal with the issues on guns and on abortion and the Middle East and Ukraine and everything else, and there’s robust discussion on each side of those issues. Sometimes they lean more one way than the other, sometimes they’re evenly split. This one is unique in that it is unanimous.

IR:

And the concerns are multifaceted, too, right? You have concerns over birds of prey and migration routes. You have concerns over the work and housing shortage that would affect the buildout of this project. Also, you have the Minidoka National Historical Site and the integrity of preserving the site where Japanese-Americans were interned in World War Two.

Risch:

I think all of those. To me, what I hear when I talk with people about this is, you know, we in Idaho love our public lands. Our open spaces. And a lot of people have seen online or other places the artists’ rendition or AI creation of it, of what this land would look like with these towers on it. And, I mean, when you see that, it’s shocking.

IR:

Taller than the Space Needle.

Risch:

It’s taller than the Space Needle. You know, it isn’t that so much as what it does to the public land, the viewshed. This is not what we want for our public lands. And so, I think that as much as anything is what drives this. People just look at that and say, you know, this is not what we want. And then of course, you can bring all the other factors into it. The way we generate electricity and all that sort of thing, you can generate a lot of electricity on a very small – actually postage stamp sized – piece of land as compared to this. If you put in a small nuclear package, which is what the world is going to – and going to go to – in the next decades and the rest of this century. I mean, you’re talking about less than an acre versus 146,000 acres. So, there’s alternatives that are there that could make this go away. On top of that, I think people are just irate that you have a New York company coming in here, going to do this to our public lands, and they’re going to sell electricity out of state. And there’s just nothing in this for us. There just really isn’t.

IR:

Do you get the sense that the Bureau of Land Management is listening to these concerns?

Risch:

You know, it’s hard to say. The BLM is made up of a lot of different people. And when it comes to the people, you can have a legitimate conversation. When it comes to the institution, I don’t get a good feeling on this. That doesn’t mean I think we’re going to lose necessarily. I think at the end of the day, we’re going to win one way or another. Whether it’s in court or some way, we’re going to win this. The thing just doesn’t make sense. But I think primarily this push is coming out of DC, it’s coming from the top down. I’m not getting the sense it’s coming from the bottom up, from the local people at the BLM district in the area. I really don’t get the feeling. In fact, a lot of the feeling I get is that they’re a little afraid to talk about, which means clearly the push is coming from the top down. I think that’s –

IR:

And that was my next question on that.

Risch:

There’s a lot of ways to skin this cat, and as you know, I’m trying to take a direct run at it. We’ll see if that works or not, but there’s a lot of ways to go about this. This has a lot of Achilles’ heels attached to it, and I think sooner or later it’s going to go away.

IR:

You touched on this a little bit, but you’ve said in hearings before that you’re not opposed to clean energy. That’s not the issue. What are your proposals for clean energy alternatives, then?

Risch:

Well, I sit on the energy committee here. Obviously, with Idaho being the home of the INL and the birthplace of nuclear energy in the country, in the world, in the universe, obviously nuclear energy is important. I really think that over the next decades, over the next centuries, the world is going to turn more and more to nuclear energy. Most countries are. Even though Idaho and the United States was the birthplace and the inventor of civilian nuclear energy, we have fallen behind. Our fleet, at its highest, our fleet was about 105 reactors. We’re down to, I think, about 95 give or take a couple now because they’ve reached the end of their lifespan. There are some new ones coming online.

I can tell you; I deal with people in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, I deal with people all over the world on energy, and a lot of other issues obviously. They are all interested in nuclear energy, and much more so, I think, than Americans are generally. So that is growing around the world. And I can tell you, there is a robust nuclear industry growing all over the planet. So that, the future is nuclear energy, like it or not. And look, there’s always going to be solar and there’s always going to be wind. But you can’t get baseload from those kinds of energy. You need a very strong source, as we have now with various things we’ve built in the past. Oil and diesel, those are going to get phased out. Something’s got to take place, and the wind and solar just simply don’t fill the gap. That means the natural step in there is nuclear.

IR:

Tell me about the bill that you proposed in the last week concerning energy projects on public land. The Don’t Do It Act, co-sponsored by the other members of Idaho’s delegation.

Risch:

Yeah. It’s interesting how that “don’t do it” has kind of gotten a life of its own. I haven’t seen any T-shirts with that on it yet. There’s probably some around. OK, look, the bill very simply puts it squarely in the hands of the state where it would be, something like that. I think, you know, on small energy projects and what have you, those kinds of things. The federal government owns the land. Like it or not, it is federal land. We do our best to get our two cents’ worth in. And just like on this, we have a RAC committee that’s made up of Idahoans that advises the BLM, and they have spoken very clearly. They don’t want this. So, you know, you have those kinds of things. But on something this size, the state really ought to have a say in it. So that’s simply what the bill does. It says if the legislature passes a bill that gives it the thumbs down, then the government’s not going to do something.

IR:

Is it just wind and solar projects?

Risch:

Well, you know, it really addresses the gamut of energy kind of projects. But what it’s intended to do is address the instant problem, and that is 146,000 acres that is going to be dramatically transformed into, what we know and love into something that’s not so much. So that’s what it’s aimed at.

IR:

Are you concerned that in the future that maybe a state legislature would use this to veto, say, a gas pipeline that a future administration might propose?

Risch:

Yeah, of course you know, legislation is dynamic. What you can give, you can take away. I really trust states to make decisions that are in the best interests of the state, and to negotiate to a reasonable point. So right now, this is addressed at this. I don’t know, we’ll see what the future holds, but we’re Americans. We can do it.

IR:

If this bill doesn’t pass and the Bureau of Land Management does move forward, what other avenues might Idaho explore to stop this project?

Risch:

Well, I think, obviously lawsuits are going to fly. They always do on these kinds of things. Any time you’re talking about natural resources, any time you’re talking about a big energy project, any time you’re talking about a huge chunk of federal land being used for something. It’s going to require a response from the courts. I think, probably. If it’s granted, there is absolutely no question about it. If it’s turned down, it’s possible that those people that are pushing this are going to see that they’re putting good money after bad, and maybe – hopefully – it will go away.

IR:

All right, Senator Jim Risch, thanks so much for joining us.

Risch:

Thank you. Thanks for having me, Melissa. Appreciate it.

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Editor’s note: This conversation was edited for clarity.