The company behind the Idaho project, Magic Valley Energy, an affiliate of the New York-based energy firm LS Power, originally proposed to construct up to 400 wind turbines on BLM land about 2 miles northeast of Minidoka. The Biden administration wants to get 25 gigawatts of renewable energy from BLM lands by 2025, and has approved projects representing about 37 percent of that goal.

To meet Biden's climate goals, a lot of more renewable energy needs to come from federal lands out West, where industry representatives say the approval process is even tougher, leading to calls from some in Congress to streamline the permitting process. 'Nobody wants to look at red-blinking lights all night, every night for the rest of their lives and nobody wants to put up with the noise pollution generated by those massive turbines,' he added.

Turbines at the Milner Dam wind farm in Cassia County, Idaho, on April, 21, 2023. 'It's the ability to site projects in different parts of the country and then to interconnect those projects with the rest of the grid.'įor many Japanese Americans, the proposed wind farm threatens to scour memories of deep suffering for the benefit of commercial interests. 'The constraint isn't the resource itself,' said John Hensley, vice president of research and analytics for the American Clean Power Association, a wind and solar industry group. military planners fretting about naval operations. Polls say most Americans want to see their electricity come from zero-emissions sources.īut finding places willing to host towering wind turbines? That's another matter.Īcross the country, wind developers are generating a new wave of not-in-my-backyard opposition that threatens to stall those climate goals: from homeowners concerned about ruined views lobstermen worried about fishing among titanic turbines nature lovers alarmed about impacts on whales and birds and even U.S. The Biden administration wants to run the grid entirely on clean energy by 2035, aiming to get much of that power from wind and other renewable sources on federally controlled lands and waters. To wean off fossil fuels and stave off climate change, the nation needs renewable power. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Jared Ragland (Jared Ragland) Janet Matsuoka Keegan, a Friends of Minidoka board member, stands in front of the Issei Memorial Wall at the Minidoka National Historic Site in Jerome, Idaho, on April 21, 2023.

The First World War by John Keegan