🏛️ Issues and Advocacy Training
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Lesson 3 of 8 · about 15 minutes

Lava Ridge: What Was Approved and How It Was Stopped

You'll be able to

  • Give the dates and numbers of the Lava Ridge Record of Decision from the Federal Register
  • Describe what the January 20, 2025 presidential memorandum did to Lava Ridge and to wind permitting generally
  • Explain what Interior announced on August 6, 2025 and what the record does and does not show about it
  • State the strongest arguments made for and against the project

Lava Ridge was the largest wind project ever proposed in Idaho, and the fight over it shaped Magic Valley politics for five years. It was approved, frozen and reversed in the span of eight months. The details of how it was stopped matter, because they decide how it could start again, which is the next lesson.

The wind lesson in the renewables course covers the technology. This one sticks to the record.

What the BLM approved

The developer was Magic Valley Energy, LLC, an affiliate of LS Power. The Federal Register notice of the Record of Decision, published December 11, 2024 at 89 FR 99904, gives the official numbers:

ItemFigure in the notice
Decision signedDecember 5, 2024 (announced publicly December 6)
TurbinesUp to 231, plus roads, collector lines and substations
Right-of-wayAbout 57,447 acres
Siting corridorsAbout 38,535 acres
Ground disturbance on public landAbout 3,926 acres
LocationBLM land in Lincoln, Minidoka and a third Magic Valley county
Appeal statusA final Interior decision, not subject to administrative appeal under 43 CFR part 4

Interior's own later release put the capacity at 1,000 MW. Some news coverage used 241 turbines; Jeff Pierson's Feeding the Beast No. 1 explains the gap as 231 turbines on BLM land plus 10 on state-managed land. The same timeline reports that Magic Valley Energy first filed a plan with the BLM in February 2020 and that the January 2023 draft EIS looked at up to 400 turbines, cut back in the final EIS of June 2024.

Example: reading the footprint numbers

  • Ground disturbance as a share of the right-of-way: 3,926 / 57,447 = 0.068, about 6.8 percent.
  • Capacity per turbine: 1,000 MW / 231 = about 4.3 MW each.
  • Right-of-way per megawatt: 57,447 / 1,000 = about 57 acres per MW.

Supporters pointed to the first number: less than 7 percent of the ground disturbed, grazing continuing around the pads. Opponents pointed to the third: the turbines, roads and lights would change the look and use of 57,000 acres of open country for decades. Both are reading the same table. Neither number answers the visual question, which depends on tower height and sightlines, not acres.

How it was stopped

DateAction
Dec. 5 to 11, 2024ROD signed, announced and noticed in the Federal Register
Jan. 20, 2025Presidential memorandum halts new federal wind approvals pending review and places a temporary moratorium on Magic Valley Energy's activities and rights under the ROD
Jan. 2025Idaho Attorney General files opening brief challenging the FAA's no-hazard determination relied on by the ROD (release dated Jan. 22)
Jan. 2025Governor Brad Little signs Executive Order 2025-01, the "Gone with the Lava Ridge Wind Project Act" (cited in Interior's August release)
Feb. 21 and Mar. 25, 2025Idaho House and Senate adopt House Joint Memorial 5 by voice vote, opposing the project and asking for more federal involvement
Aug. 6, 2025Interior announces it is reversing the December 2024 approval

The memorandum's Section 2(a) told agencies not to issue "new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans" for onshore or offshore wind while the review ran. Section 2(b) named Lava Ridge and placed a moratorium on "all activities and rights of Magic Valley Energy, LLC" under the decision.

Interior's August 6, 2025 release said its review found "crucial legal deficiencies" in the approval, including statutory criteria it said were ignored. It cited the governor's executive order, state agency letters describing a significant lack of consultation, and the Idaho House vote. The release also said the department would no longer give preferential treatment to intermittent power sources.

Now the gap in the record. The press release's headline says Interior "moves to cancel" the approval. Trade coverage two days later described the ROD as rescinded. This course could not find a separate published revocation decision document on BLM's NEPA register, and found no lawsuit by Magic Valley Energy challenging the reversal as of October 2026. Both points matter for the next lesson. If you find either, it changes the analysis.

The arguments, at full strength

For the project, as made by the developer, the BLM and supporters: 1,000 MW of new generation with no fuel cost, built mostly on federal land where grazing could continue around turbine pads; production tax revenue for counties, since Idaho taxes wind at 3 percent of gross earnings under Idaho Code 63-3502B; construction jobs; and a reduced alternative that cut the turbine count well below the original proposal. The BLM framed the approval as part of meeting the 25 gigawatt renewable permitting goal Congress set in the Energy Act of 2020, according to Feeding the Beast No. 1.

Against the project, as made by the state of Idaho, county officials and residents: the scale, with towers visible across a huge area, and effects on historic places, a concern often tied to the nearby Minidoka National Historic Site; agricultural aviation, which is why the Attorney General targeted the FAA determination; wildlife and sagebrush habitat; and the process itself, with state agencies saying they were not meaningfully consulted. Attorney General Raúl Labrador's January 22, 2025 release listed threats to farms and ranches, rural communities, water supplies, wildlife and historical sites, including the Minidoka National Historic Site.

Where the evidence points: the opposition was broad inside Idaho, reaching from the governor to both chambers by voice vote. What stopped the project, though, was a change in federal policy, not a court ruling on the merits. That distinction is the whole next lesson.

The draft stage had bigger numbers. The January 20, 2023 notice of the draft EIS described a 197,474-acre project area with 9,114 acres of total disturbance in Jerome, Lincoln and Minidoka counties, managed by the BLM Shoshone Field Office. Scoping raised sage-grouse habitat and Shoshone-Bannock treaty rights, and BLM consulted with the Tribes government to government.

Common mix-ups

  • Claim: A court struck down Lava Ridge. What the evidence shows: The stop came from a presidential memorandum and an Interior decision. The Attorney General's FAA challenge was pending when the memorandum issued.
  • Claim: The Legislature banned the project. What the evidence shows: House Joint Memorial 5 is a request to federal officials. It has no legal force over federal land.
  • Claim: The BLM approved 400 turbines. What the evidence shows: The draft EIS studied up to 400. The ROD allowed up to 231 on the right-of-way.

Reporting angle

  • File a FOIA request (5 U.S.C. 552) with Interior and the BLM for the decision document that carried out the August 2025 reversal and the legal analysis behind "crucial legal deficiencies."
  • Search PACER and the BLM register every few months for any suit by Magic Valley Energy or LS Power over the reversal.
  • Put the question to the Idaho Attorney General's office: what happened to the FAA challenge after the reversal: dismissed, stayed or still pending?
  • Ask LS Power directly whether Magic Valley Energy still holds any interconnection or right-of-way positions tied to Lava Ridge.
  • Check whether the 10 turbines on state-managed land had any separate Idaho Department of Lands lease, and its status.

Research angle

Check yourself

1. According to the Federal Register notice, when was the Lava Ridge Record of Decision signed, and how many turbines did it allow on the right-of-way?

2. What did Section 2(b) of the January 20, 2025 presidential memorandum direct for Lava Ridge?

3. The ROD's right-of-way covered about 57,447 acres with an estimated 3,926 acres of ground disturbance on public land. What share of the right-of-way is that?

4. What legal action did Idaho's Attorney General describe in his January 22, 2025 release?

5. Which reason did Interior's August 6, 2025 release give for reversing the approval?

Terms in this lesson

Record of Decision (ROD)
The signed federal document that picks an alternative after an environmental impact statement and states what is approved.
Environmental impact statement (EIS)
The detailed analysis required by the National Environmental Policy Act for major federal actions that may significantly affect the environment.
Presidential memorandum
A written directive from the President to agencies; it guides executive action but does not change statutes.
House Joint Memorial
A resolution of the Idaho Legislature addressed to Congress or federal officials; it states a position but has no force of law.

Full glossary

Sources