US revokes giant wind farm permit issued one month before Trump took office

President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked approval of the 1GW Lava Ridge wind project on mostly federal lands in the western state of Idaho, citing “crucial legal deficiencies” in its issuance.

Lava Ridge is sponsored by Magic Valley Energy, a unit of New York-based LS Power, an independent power and transmission developer and operator. It did not immediately comment on the Department of the Interior (DoI)’s decision.

After taking office on 20 January, Trump issued executive orders directing DoI to adopt more stringent criteria for permitting wind and solar projects on US lands.

At that time, DoI had 48 renewable projects under environmental review including 35 utility-scale solar, 10 power lines, and three wind.

Repeal of Lava Ridge’s authorization will heighten concern among investors in those sectors that some and perhaps all of those projects may now stall, even those nearing the end of the review process.

DoI is also reviewing approval processes for several projects it greenlighted shortly before predecessor Joe Biden left office.

Lava Ridge is one of those. After modifications, the project won final approval last 5 December despite opposition from the state’s governor, US senators, Republican lawmakers in the lower house of the state legislature, and some local officials.

The reconfigured wind farm would have employed 241 turbines, down from an initial 400, 231 on federal lands and 10 on those managed by the state. The approved plan also cut disturbed area by half and capped turbine height at 660 feet (201.1 metres), down from 740 feet.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called the Biden administration’s greenlighting of the project “reckless,” and “thoughtless,” asserting Lava Ridge “would have been one of the largest, most irresponsible wind projects in the nation."

Burgum did not identify them.

He said DoI under his leadership is putting “brakes on deficient, unreliable energy” and the “American people first.”

The administration is “restoring common sense to American energy policy,” while restating that under Trump, DoI will no longer provide preferential treatment towards “unreliable, intermittent power sources that harm rural communities, livelihoods and the land.”

DoI late in Biden’s term – 18 December – also gave final approval to the 38-turbine, 280MW Two Rivers wind project in southern Wyoming. It will be located on federal, private, and state lands.

The sponsor is a joint venture comprising Clearway Energy Group based in California and BluEarth Renewables, an independent power producer with headquarters in Calgary, Canada.

Trump and Burgum have not mentioned the project in their steady stream of policy memorandums and orders critical of wind energy.

Still, US-Canada relations are at their lowest point in decades with Trump blasting Ottawa over border protection, defence spending levels, trade, and its refusal to become the 51st US state.

Revocation of the Biden-era approval for Two Rivers would likely ratchet tension further.