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| San Pedro River photo Robin Silver |
Another so-called 'green energy' project threatens the sacred places of Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache
Update: The Tohono O'odham Nation and San Carlos Apache Nations filed for a restraining order against Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Interior Dept., and BLM, on March 13 in Tucson federal court. Haaland's bulldozers are now tearing through sacred places in the San Pedro Valley for a transmission line for another fake green energy project destroying sacred places.
TUCSON -- A so-called 'green' energy project plans to plow through Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache sacred and historical places in the San Pedro Valley in Arizona. The transmission line of 'renewable energy' from wind farms in central New Mexico would cut through Arizona and continue on to California. The SunZia transmission line is now being fought in federal court.
Tohono O'odham said it was heartbreaking to see Interior Sec. Deb Haaland attend the groundbreaking ceremony for SunZia, and for the Interior to approve a crucial permit for the project in the first place.
In this long battle, which is now before the federal court, Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Ned Norris pointed out the cultural and biological resources here, in a letter to the BLM in March of 2023.
"It is one of the largest expanses of undisturbed lands in Arizona. There are many landforms in the San Pedro Valley that have both O’odham and Apache names known to elders. There are hundreds of localities in the San Pedro Valley with cultural, historical, archaeological and religious importance to the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Hopi, Zuni and Apache tribes."
San Carlos Apache said they have made the facts clear since 2008, and the Bureau of Land Management has failed to consult them, or provide them with the final environmental impact statement. Further, their requests for alternative routes have been ignored.
There is 12,000 years of history of Native People living here in the San Pedro Valley, and 500 sacred and historical sites have been identified.
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| https://www.enr.com/articles/58188-11b-sunzia-power-project-suit-has-march-7-federal-court-hearing Interior Sec. Haaland Promoted SunZia, while O'odham and Apache Opposed SunZia Transmission Line Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Laguna Pueblo, spoke at the groundbreaking of Pattern Energy's SunZia project in Corona, New Mexico, on Sept. 1, 2023 -- even though Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations had already opposed it for years, and were battling to protect their sacred and historical places. |
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=ernuOhyGcnI Video screenshot by Censored News |
During her address, Haaland indulged in gratitude to politicians, and called the project, "clean and sustainable energy." She praised Biden, while calling the project a "climate solution." She also claimed the BLM New Mexico team had constantly sought collaboration and "did not cut any corners."
Haaland claimed that they had worked in partnership and collaboration with tribal nations to ensure that cultural landscapes had been protected.
Haaland made no mention of the threat to Native sacred places in southeastern Arizona.
Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache leaders describe the failed consultation, and disrespect shown, through the years as they battled this project which puts sacred places and pristine natural life at risk.
Battling violations of federal laws, the Tohono O'odham Nation and San Carlos Apache Nation filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior and BLM for approving the high-voltage transmission line, stating that the government failed to account for historic and cultural sites through the line's San Pedro Valley route.
Tohono O'odham and San Carlos Apache Nations, joined by the Center for Biological Diversity Archaeology Southwest, filed a lawsuit suit in federal court on Jan. 17 over the authorization of the SunZia transmission line.
San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler sent a letter to the BLM requesting meaningful consultation over the powerline route in March of 2023. Chairman Rambler said the tribe has made it clear since 2008 that there are cultural and historical places at risk, and has received no communications from the BLM about the final environmental impact statement.
"The Tribe is especially concerned about the highly intrusive, all-new transmission corridor through the San Pedro Valley from Benson to San Manuel. This Valley, which The Nature Conservancy calls one of the 'Last Great Places' in America, is the fragile core for the largest expanse of unfragmented land in the Southwest, an area that includes the southern half of the San Carlos Apache Reservation."
"At least as importantly, the Valley is the home to more than 60 landforms named and remembered in our Apache language. The Valley also hosts thousands of localities having religious, cultural, historical, and archaeological importance to Apache, O’odham, Hopi, and Zuni peoples."
Pointing out federal laws, Chairman Rambler said, "The BLM proposal to approve this project in advance of transparent, place-specific
tribal consultations does not comport with provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act,
the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Executive Order No. 13175, the recent
proclamations of the Biden Administration, and other related law and policy," Chairman Rambler said.
The complaint filed before the Arizona Corporation Commission describes the history of the Tohono O'odham in their ancestral homeland here, both the Sobaipuri O'odham and the Hohokam who came before them.
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https://biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/rivers/san_pedro_river/pdfs/lawsuit-ACC-20240205-COMPLAINT-FILED.pdf |
The San Carlos Apache Nation, in the complaint to the Arizona Corporation Commission, describes the peoples history here in the San Pedro Valley, and states that culturally sensitive areas remain here.
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https://biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/rivers/san_pedro_river/pdfs/lawsuit-ACC-20240205-COMPLAINT-FILED.pdf |
Haaland promoted the project for the jobs it would bring to New Mexico. However, New Mexico State Senator Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces, said once it is built there will be few jobs, and high maintenance cost.
Further, he said it takes energy out of New Mexico.
“It seems like New Mexico is being exploited for California because they’ve got higher energy costs there and we get the wind turbines and not much after they’re built,” Sen. Soules said, reported New Mexico Political Report during the groundbreaking in September of 2023.
The SunZia 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 permitted route originates at a planned substation in Torrance County, New Mexico, and terminates at the existing Pinal Central Substation in Pinal County, Arizona. The project traverses Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance and Valencia counties in New Mexico and Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima and Pinal counties in Arizona.
The financiers of the $11 billion SunZia project can be viewed here:
Update: Tohono O'odham et al v. U.S. Department of Interior: March 13, 2024
Article copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News
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