The Lava Ridge wind project proposed northeast of Twin Falls, Idaho, would be blocked under a funding measure that a congressional committee has approved.

The project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, which the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued in early June, “shall have no force or effect,” according to text that Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, added to the Fiscal Year 2025 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

The House Committee on Appropriations approved the funding package by a vote of 29-25, advancing it to the full House.

Magic Valley Energy, a unit of New York-based LS Power, submitted a proposal for up to 400 turbines and associated infrastructure on about 84,000 acres of federal, state and private land. Turbines would be up to 740 feet tall. Generating capacity would be more than 1,000 megawatts.

The alternative that BLM prefers in the Final EIS reduces the footprint by nearly half, the number of turbines to 241 and the maximum turbine height to 660 feet.

The Final EIS “was a slap in the face to Idahoans,” Simpson, who chairs the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a July 10 news release. “Despite numerous concerns voiced by Congress and the Magic Valley (of south-central Idaho), the Biden administration and the Bureau of Land Management continue to ignore Idahoans and ram through renewable energy projects that lack local support.”

Formal opposition to Lava Ridge has come from south-central Idaho community leaders, the legislature, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all four members of the state’s congressional delegation.

Concerns cited include impacts on livestock grazing; the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer; wildfire response; agricultural aviation; local infrastructure; and the Minidoka National Historic Site, a former World War II internment camp.

“From the beginning, I have made it clear that the Lava Ridge wind project is out of touch and has no place in our state,” Simpson said in the release. “I remain committed to fighting with the people of Idaho in opposition to this project.”

The project developer said BLM’s Final EIS strikes a balance.

The bureau has “thoroughly addressed stakeholder concerns, pairing significant modifications to the project with numerous minimization and mitigation measures in the preferred alternative,” Luke Papez, senior director of project development for LS Power, said in a statement. The adjustments “will result in an appropriate balance between the need for additional domestic energy production and ensuring protection of our vital environmental resources, honoring our rich cultural heritage and integrating invaluable local stakeholder feedback.”

Lava Ridge is poised to deliver substantial benefits to local communities, and generate “tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the Magic Valley and the state of Idaho,” he said. The project “can help meet the significant demand for domestic clean energy in Idaho and the Western United States.”

BLM received more than 11,000 comments in the earlier Draft Environmental Impact Statement process. The draft was released in mid-January 2023.