The SunZia Southwest Transmission Project, designed to serve the Arizona and California markets, will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere, with a massive 3,500-megawatt array of turbines due next year. It will be built in three counties in the state of Mexico.

The final environmental impact statement released by BLM on February 16 represents one of the final regulatory hurdles for transmission lines, first proposed in 2006.

Stakeholders have until March 19 to file complaints about the content of the 1,200-page document. BLM is expected to make a final decision on SunZia’s rights of way across state land this spring.

Environmental groups in several countries have lined up behind power lines and the green energy they bring, but SunZia continues to face opposition from local conservationists and residents along the San Pedro River north of Benson. facing

For years they have tried to block the project or move it out of a largely undeveloped valley on the eastern slopes of the Rincon Mountains. The Rincon Mountains are widely recognized as a haven of biodiversity and an internationally important corridor for hundreds of bird species.

Peter Else, a conservationist who lives along San Pedro, near Mammoth, called Sanjia a “complete failure of land use planning” and warned that if the project were “100% co-located,” Arizona and New Mexico would be at risk. It would unnecessarily harm ecologically sensitive land. Along existing power lines.

“There is no need to make the wrong choice between transmitting renewable energy and saving the last remaining wild lands,” said Else.

he plans to protest BLM Environmental Review On the grounds that the transmission line’s purpose was changed and federal regulators failed to properly analyze its potential harm and its benefits.

“They arbitrarily imply that this project will reduce greenhouse gas emissions overall, without a full analysis of what the emissions will be,” he said during construction. said otherwise, including pollution and the production of the materials on which SunZia is built.

The transmission lines and the giant wind farm that powers them are owned by San Francisco-based renewable giant Pattern Energy Group.

Pattern acquired the power transmission project earlier this year and hopes to have it built and activated by late 2025, when the SunZia Wind development is also expected to come online.

The company calls the two projects the largest renewable energy infrastructure investment in U.S. history, with a combined cost of over $8 billion and enough capacity to serve more than 3 million people.

The Arizona portion of the line stretches for about 200 miles and includes about 780 pylons ranging in height from 55 to 195 feet. Each structure has two 500 kilovolt lines, one owned by Pattern to move energy from SunZia Wind.

Arizona’s power regulator gave final approval to the transmission project in November, something Else also disputes.

In December he filed a formal petition for rehearing before the Arizona Business Commission. I filed a complaint pending in court.

“The story the pattern is telling is that it’s a done deal…but my protests continue at both the state and federal levels,” Els said. I will continue to advocate for myself through all legal channels and then whatever the outcome.”

Federal regulators have already reviewed entire transmission line projects and in 2016 approved a 400-foot-wide corridor spanning 183 miles of public land in Arizona and New Mexico.

BLM’s latest environmental impact statement focuses on the right-of-way changes that Pattern hopes to make, primarily in New Mexico, rather than “relocating entire powerline routes.” increase. agency says.

Even if BLM rejects the proposed right-of-way change, the pattern can still build SunZia. This primarily involves rerouting power lines across the Rio Grande, through the Seville National Wildlife Refuge, and away from parts of the White Sands Missile Range. Existing transmission corridor.

The only major change on the Arizona side of the project is the addition of a new power conversion substation on state trust land just east of Red Rock in Pinal County.