Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Biodiversity and renewable energy on the San Pedro River
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Thursday, March 30, 2023
San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. Photo by Bob Wick, BLM ([link removed]) .

Conservation groups and residents along Arizona's San Pedro River are challenging a plan to build a 45-mile long utility corridor ([link removed]) that would cut through the river valley. The Bureau of Land Management says ([link removed]) the proposed SunZia Southwest Transmission Project would accelerate habitat loss, affect migratory birds, and remove riparian vegetation along the river, which is home to more than 60 species of mammals, 14 species of fish, and millions of birds that migrate along the San Pedro each year.

Nevertheless, the BLM settled on the current route in 2015, which was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission. The transmission line would carry renewable energy from the proposed SunZia wind farm in New Mexico into Pinal County, running along the river roughly 25 miles north of the San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area, near the boundaries of Saguaro National Park East and Coronado National Forest.

But the Arizona Republic reports ([link removed]) that last year SunZia asked to split the project into separate ownership, one company for alternating current and one for direct current. The AC line would provide reliability to Arizona's power grid, while the DC line would transmit electricity to California, with no hookups along the way. Advocates call that a "bait and switch," running the risk that the AC line will never get built, denying benefits to Arizona consumers.

Conservation groups are calling on the Corporation Commission to withdraw its certificate of environmental compatibility for the SunZia line, citing that change in ownership, and calling for an alternate route that avoids the San Pedro. In 2020, the BLM adjusted the SunZia route in New Mexico to avoid cutting through the White Sands Missile Range. Conservation groups had warned the line would harm migrating birds and other wildlife in the area.

Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, suggests a similar modification would avoid conflicts in Arizona.

“Why couldn’t we say, ‘okay, site it along I-10 and underground it, so you aren’t affecting people in those communities,’” Bahr told the Republic ([link removed]) . “Then you're siting it along a major transportation corridor and you’re not impacting one of our state's most important rivers?”
Quick hits


** Senate clears measure to reverse Biden rule on wetlands, setting up veto
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed]) | Iowa Capital Dispatch ([link removed]) | CNN ([link removed]) | Kansas City Star ([link removed])


** Why Biden’s oil policies upset everybody
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Judge tosses lawsuit over Forest Service fire response in Utah
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])


** Oil companies bid on only 2 percent of parcels in offshore oil lease sale mandated by Inflation Reduction Act
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NPR ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Judge orders Interior to resume oil lease sales in North Dakota
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | Bismarck Tribune ([link removed])


** Zinke still fixated on failed BLM headquarters move
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E&E News ([link removed])


** BLM ponies up $4.7 million for horse adoption
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AgDaily ([link removed])


** Recent rains could lead to California super bloom
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KSBY ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” Once you build these things in the San Pedro River Valley that’s forever, and the damage is done. I’ll take a few extra years of them having to permit versus a hundred years of damage to the San Pedro River Valley.”
—Arizona State University law professor Ilan Wurman, Arizona Republic ([link removed])
Picture this


** @Interior ([link removed])
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Approximately 90 miles south of Oklahoma City, there is a recreation gem in @ChickasawNPS ([link removed]) . 💎

Lake of the Arbuckles is an aquatic wonderland where visitors can go fishing, swimming and boating — not to mention, the incredible star gazing.

Photo by Lauren Long

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