TUCSON — The San Carlos Apache Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation have joined with Tucson-based Archeology Southwest and the Center for Biological Diversity in attempting to halt the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project.
The group filed suit in U.S. District Court on Jan. 17, claiming the area the transmission line will cross has cultural and religious impact to Apache, O’odham, Hopi and Zuni; and the Bureau of Land Management failed to take that impact into account when issuing its record of decision last May allowing Pinnacle Energy to move forward with the project.
The SunZia Southwest Transmission Project is composed of two planned 500-kilovolt transmission lines located across approximately 520 miles of federal, state and private lands between central New Mexico and central Arizona. The lines will run through Graham, Greenlee, Cochise, Pima and Pinal counties.
Once completed, the project will deliver 4,500 megawatts of primarily renewable energy from New Mexico to markets in Arizona and California.
Since 2021, the BLM has approved 35 renewable-energy projects (10 solar, eight geothermal, and 17 gen-ties) on approximately 23,396 acres of BLM-managed lands. These projects are expected to produce 8,160 megawatts of electricity — enough to power more than 2.6 million homes.
