- Details
- By Chez Oxendine
- Energy | Environment
A federal appeals court Tuesday revived a lawsuit challenging permits granted for the SunZia transmission line.
The 550‐mile transmission line would carry wind-generated electricity from the SunZia wind farm in central New Mexico to markets in Arizona and California. The project, first proposed in 2008 and approved by the Department of the Interior in 2015, is a result of a partnership between San Francisco-based Pattern Energy and the New Mexico Renewable Energy Transportation Authority.
When the SunZia line was approved, the Bureau of Land Management established a programmatic agreement to inventory and review historic sites along the transmission route. The agreement required federal agencies to categorize potential damages and consult with affected groups, including tribes, on how to proceed. The San Pedro Valley, considered culturally significant by several tribes, was among the sites requiring review.
The lawsuit contends that those programmatic requirements were not met when reviewing the valley. The complaint was filed in Jan. 2024 by the Tohono O’odham Nation, the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and nonprofits Archaeology Southwest and the Center for Biological Diversity. They allege that, by failing to conduct adequate San Pedro Valley consultations, the Interior Department and its partner agencies violated the National Historic Preservation Act obligations in reviewing and approving the project.
“The Tohono O’odham Nation supports clean, renewable energy – when it is done the right way,” said Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Verlon Jose in a press release regarding the suit’s revival. “With the SunZia project, the federal government failed to work with tribes to protect our cultural resources as required by law.”
The U.S. District Court of Arizona denied a request for an injunction against the SunZia line in April 2024. Two months later, the district court dismissed the suit, citing the time since the record of decision. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed and sent the case back to district court.
“Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that the Department [of Interior] violated the National Historic Preservation Act by failing to comply with a programmatic agreement,” Appeals Judge Mark J. Bennett wrote in a 29-page opinion. “The district court erred in granting the motions to dismiss.”
With the suit now back in play, the plaintiffs will push to reroute the line elsewhere, such as through Tucson, rather than the San Pedro River Valley.
“The Department of Interior failed to conduct a cultural landscape study of the San Pedro River Valley to determine whether the entire valley is eligible for listing as a traditional cultural place,” said San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler in a statement. “The only way to avoid the culturally devastating effects of this project is to reroute the powerline outside of the valley.”
The groups believe they have a strong case since the Ninth Circuit’s ruling seems to acknowledge a failure to comply with the law, Robin Silver, co-founder of the Center for Biological Diversity, told Arizona Public Media (AZPM).
“We and the tribes were very clear from the beginning that there was no mitigation possible with them picking a corridor or picking a route that goes right up the San Pedro Valley,” Silver said. “They decided to focus all their construction activities to try to do as much damage as they could, focused on the San Pedro, instead of working on the other 400 miles of their transmission line before the courts ruled.”
