https://grist.org/global-indigenous-aff ... southwest/
A gigantic green energy transmission project will cut through Indigenous lands in the Southwest
After a federal court rejected their lawsuit, tribes are turning to the U.N. for help.
"Last week, a United States federal judge rejected a request from Indigenous nations to stop SunZia, a $10 billion wind-transmission project that would cut through traditional tribal lands in southwestern Arizona.
Amy Juan is a member of the Tohono O’odham nation at the Arizona-Mexico border and brought the news of the federal court’s ruling to New York last week, telling attendees of the the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, that she was disappointed but not surprised."
"The 550-mile high-voltage line has a 50-milelong section that cuts through the San Pedro Valley and Indigenous nations that include the Tohono O’odham, Hopi, Zuni, and San Carlos Apache.
The suit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was filed in January. The lawsuit called the valley “one of the most intact, prehistoric, and historical … landscapes in southern Arizona,” and asked the court to issue restraining orders or permanent injunctions to halt construction.
The tribes fear the pipeline will irreversibly damage the land both ecologically and culturally.
The federal court chided the tribes for not filing suit earlier, noting they had a window of six years to file from 2015, when the project was originally approved. “Plaintiffs’ 2024 challenge to the [project] is therefore untimely,” the judge’s decision read.
The tribes had been actively pushing for alternative routes and for more in-depth reviews of the land in question for years. Their argument is that the six-year timeline began last fall, not earlier."
'“There is really no follow-through when tribes express their concerns,” she said."
“It’s hard to convince governments and businesses to deny these big energy projects without outside intervention,” she said.
“They are doing the same thing as fossil fuel,” she added. “It’s just more trendy.”