Sen Risch to introduce bill giving states power to stop 'unwanted' climate change projects on public land

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Idaho Senator Jim Risch, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, joins Neil Cavuto on 'CAVUTO Live.'

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, wants to give states more power to reject solar and wind energy projects on federal land.

Risch is expected to introduce a bill, known as the Don’t Develop Obstructive Infrastructure on our Terrain Act, or Don’t DO IT Act, on Wednesday that would require the Department of the Interior secretary to deny energy projects if state legislatures disapprove of them. It is cosponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. 

House Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher of Idaho are also expected to introduce the companion bill in the lower chamber Wednesday, Fox News Digital has learned.

The bill comes as a controversial proposed Lava Ridge Wind Energy Project is making headway in Idaho, despite opposition from Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, the entire Idaho Congressional delegation, members of the bipartisan Idaho legislature, seven Idaho counties and several other organizations.

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Ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID) speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on April 26, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)

The proposed project involves installing around 400 wind turbines and other infrastructure needed to power it spanning 197,474 acres. This is equivalent to an area slightly larger than Los Angeles.

Risch said in a statement to Fox News Digital his bill "will empower Idaho and other states to prevent the federal government from implementing unwanted, obstructive, and misaligned wind and solar energy projects on public land, like Lava Ridge."

Crapo added "Allowing state legislatures to have oversight on new wind and solar projects on federal land means the federal government and its agencies take into consideration the will of the people closest to the project."

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Wind turbines are seen at Duke Energy's Top of the World energy facility on April 23, 2013, in Rollings Hills, Wyoming. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

In May, during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Risch questioned Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on the project.

"The conversations are ongoing," Haaland said, after being questioned repeatedly about what she has "found out so far" about the project in numerous meetings with state officials. Haaland was unaware of the Minidoka site's historical background.

According to Risch's office, "the smallest [turbine] [is] taller than the Statue of Liberty and the largest towering more than 100 feet over the Seattle Space Needle."

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Heavy electrical transmission lines are pictured at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California's Mojave Desert on July 15, 2022, near Primm, Nevada. (George Rose/Getty Images)

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The massive project also drew criticism from Friends of Minidoka, a grassroots group of historic preservationists protecting the Minidoka National Historic Site, where Japanese people were held in a concentration camp during World War II. 

"The proposed project places 340 towers in the Minidoka NHS viewshed with 12 of those towers on the historic Minidoka footprint. The Minidoka community of survivors and descendants deserve the respect and acknowledgment of this gross violation of civil liberties by our nation’s government through the preservation of the site," their website reads. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Haaland's office for comment.