Idaho farmer Dean Dimond torches potential Biden windmill project: 'It'll destroy the desert'
Idaho farmer Dean Dimond joins 'Jesse Watters Primetime' to fire back at feds seeking wind turbines in prime livestock region.
An Idaho farmer leading the charge against a potential wind farm project said Thursday the plan will leave locals in the lurch and cause irreversible damage to prime grazing land and scenery.
Dean Dimond, with the group Stop Lava Ridge, told "Jesse Watters Primetime" ranchers, the regional hunting industry and the local aquifer will feel the effects of having dozens of windmills spring up.
"The ranchers that have cows that have ran out on [the land] for generations, it's just going to be devastating, especially during the construction period, so it's just not going to be good for the whole valley," he said.
Dimond said he has not been personally consulted about the project, but other landowners who have grazing allotments on the desert lands have been, with underwhelming results.
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Windmills are seen in this file photo screenshot from Jesse Watters Primetime (Jesse Watters Primetime screenshot)
"My friends… have been approached and offered just pennies of what it would actually cost them to move off of the desert," he said. "And it will destroy the desert, so they'll never be able to come back on [it] again like they are now."
Dimond said he has not talked with a single Idahoan who supports the project, adding the community is further upset that the energy the windmills will produce would reportedly be shipped to California instead of benefiting the local area.
"We're one of the reddest states in the nation, and they're shipping it all over to California. Maybe a little bit will stay in Nevada."
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Wind turbines in Palm Springs, Calif., one of several western states facing a potential energy crisis due to increased demand for renewable power not tracking with production. (REUTERS/David Swanson)
While there is a possibility Idaho utilities could submit bids for the energy, Dimond said because the chief bidder would be California, which is home to a much costlier grid, Idaho interests would likely be easily outbid.
"That's one thing that they're finding out here in Idaho is, you know, ranching is a way of life for us: farming, ranching and living out here, and we don't do it for the money," he said.
"I mean, we all do it to make a living. Don't get me wrong that way. But we're not out here to become billionaires and rich. It's a way of life, and so when they start coming in and throwing their billions-of-dollars numbers around and stuff, it just kind of turns us off."
Host Jesse Watters reported the Biden administration is eyeing the Lava Ridge project, which he said would lead to the construction of hundreds of turbines over 75,000 acres of government land.