The San Pedro River is in danger

The largest clean-energy project in US history cuts through the pristine San Pedro Valley. Tribes and residents are trying to reroute it.
Inside Climate News
by Wyatt Myskow
April 10, 2024

The SunZia transmission line is planned to stretch across more than 500 miles, connecting 3,000 megawatts of clean energy generated from wind farms in New Mexico to the power grid, which will carry most of it to utilities in California. As the U.S. looks to pivot away from generating electricity with fossil fuels, the nearly 50 miles of SunZia lines that would cut through the middle of the San Pedro Valley have sparked one of the nation’s most consequential fights over developing green spaces for green energy.

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The U.S. Urgently Needs a Bigger Grid. Here’s a Fast Solution.
By Brad Plumer
April 9, 2024

One of the biggest obstacles to expanding clean energy in the United States is a lack of power lines. Building new transmission lines can take a decade or more because of permitting delays and local opposition. But there may be a faster, cheaper solution, according to two reports released Tuesday.

Replacing existing power lines with cables made from state-of-the-art materials could roughly double the capacity of the electric grid in many parts of the country, making room for much more wind and solar power.

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After hearing from Arizona residents, we are deeply concerned concerned about the negative implications of this project on Arizona … In November of 2022, the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) approved amendments to Pattern Energy’s Arizona permit. In doing so, they acquiesced to Pattern’s plan to make Arizona a Pass-through state.”

Twelve Arizona State Congressmen and Representatives have sent a powerful letter to the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) ask they “review the previous actions granted to SunZia and ensure the concerns of Arizona ratepayers are adequately addressed.”

Read the full letter, as delivered and registered …

Archaeology Southwest joined this lawsuit because of USBLM’s many failures to use its discretion to spare the San Pedro Valley—a place of exceptional beauty and historical, cultural, spiritual, and ecological importance—from industrial fragmentation. As a Tucson-based nonprofit with deep ties to the valley community, Archaeology Southwest has long urged USBLM to route the transmission line alongside existing infrastructure.

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From power lines to copper mines, tribal leaders are raising concerns about projects essential to President Biden’s climate goals
By Maxine Joselow
March 4, 2024

TUCSON, Ariz. — Verlon Jose recalls climbing a hill here to see the majestic peaks of the Santa Rita Mountains in one direction and the cactus-studded San Pedro Valley, where his ancestors lived hundreds of years ago, in the other.

But looking out from that same vista in February, Jose saw only unwelcome development. To the south, bulldozers were carving roads and clearing land for a massive copper mine on the western slope of the Santa Ritas. To the east, construction was underway on a 550-mile power line that would cut through a 50-mile portion of the valley.

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PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2024

TRIBES CALL ON ARIZONA CORPORATION COMMISSION TO HALT CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUNZIA TRANSMISSION LINE IN ARIZONA

Toronto-based Pattern Energy in Violation of Commission Guidelines, Plans to Desecrate Sacred lands in the San Pedro River Valley without Required Cultural Resource Studies

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Tohono O’odham Nation and the San Carlos Apache Tribe filed a formal complaint with the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024 demanding the Commission halt construction of the SunZia high voltage transmission line in Arizona for violating Commission orders. The Center for Biological Diversity and Archeology Southwest joined the Tribes in the complaint.

Toronto-based Pattern Energy is constructing a 550-mile transmission corridor connecting central New Mexico and south-central Arizona with two 500kV transmission lines. Construction of a 50-mile portion of the transmission line will carve up the environmentally sensitive San Pedro River Valley, causing irreparable damage to sacred and cultural sites of the Tohono O’odham Nation, San Carlos Apache Tribe, and other tribes.

“Pattern Energy jumped the gun when it began construction of the SunZia power line through the San Pedro River Valley by failing to prepare and submit required cultural studies to the Arizona Corporation Commission,” said Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose. “This is the latest example of this Canadian company ignoring legal requirements designed to protect critical cultural sites. The Commission should immediately order Pattern Energy to cease construction until Pattern complies with all Commission orders.”

San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler said, “Tribes are staunch supporters of renewable energy and encourage responsible energy development. However, Pattern Energy has shown a flagrant disregard for protecting the cultural resources that are vital to our Tribe and other tribes. There are alternative locations to place this powerline rather than through the heart of one the most pristine environmental and cultural landscapes in the Southwest.”

The complaint documents how Pattern Energy has violated two separate provisions of its Certificate of Environmental Compatibility (CEC), which is required by the Commission for the SunZia transmission line. The complaint states that Pattern Energy failed to submit a cultural landscape study and only submitted a partial historic properties treatment plan prior to beginning construction in 2023. Privately-held Pattern Energy acquired SunZia Transmission LLC in July 2022.

The complaint requests the Commission order Pattern Energy to cease construction of the transmission line in Arizona. If Pattern Energy fails to do so, the complaint requests the Commission to suspend the company’s CEC until it complies with Commission orders for the cultural landscape study and completion of the historic properties’ treatment plan.

The ACC complaint comes just less than three weeks after the same parties filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for failure to comply with federal laws and executive orders that would protect cultural sites from the SunZia transmission line. The lawsuit seeks an emergency injunction pending BLM’s compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court, District of Arizona, Case 4:24-cv-00034-JGZ.

Matt Probst
SIMG, Inc.
520-321-1111 office
520-409-4660 cell

On February 5, 2024, attorneys for the Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Center for Biological Diversity, Archaeology Southwest, and citizen-intervenor Peter Else filed a formal complaint before the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) regarding SunZia’s violation of conditions in their state permit that require SunZia to complete a cultural landscape study and a historic properties treatment plan prior to commencing construction. SunZia has admitted that these two documents have not been completed. However, SunZia has already initiated construction in Arizona.

SunZia, the holder of Certificate of Environmental Compatibility No. 171 (“CEC”), has unlawfully begun construction of its transmission lines. The CEC obliges SunZia to submit two substantive documents to the Commission prior to commencement of construction: a cultural landscape study and a historic properties treatment plan. SunZia has submitted an incomplete historic properties treatment plan and has not conducted a cultural landscape study. The Commission is requested to (1) enforce the CEC by ordering SunZia to cease construction until the conditions of the CEC are complied with, and (2) advise SunZia that failing to do so will result in suspension of the CEC until SunZia complies with the CEC’s conditions.

The parties represented in this Complaint are asking the ACC to (1) enforce the state permit by ordering SunZia to cease construction until these cultural resource requirements in the state permit are complied with, and (2) advise SunZia that failing to do so will result in suspension of the state permit until SunZia complies with these cultural resource requirements.

Read the full filing …