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Lawsuit

1 Jan 2024

US Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management lawsuit (re SunZia wind energy project, USA)

Status: ONGOING

Date lawsuit was filed
1 Jan 2024
Date accuracy
Year and Month Correct
Not applicable
Indigenous peoples, Human Rights Defender, NGO
Location of Filing: United States of America
Location of Incident: United States of America
Type of Litigation: Domestic

Companies

Pattern Energy United States of America Solar energy, Wind energy

Against other:

Government

Sources

Snapshot: In January 2024, Native American tribes, including the Tohono O'odham, Hopi, Zuni, and San Carlos Apache Tribe, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and Archaeology Southwest, filed a lawsuit against the US Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management with the US District Court for the District of Arizona. They challenged the approval of the $10 billion SunZia-operated transmission line intended to carry wind-generated energy from New Mexico to other states across the US. They argued that the Bureau had failed to fulfil its obligations to identify historic sites and that the project would cause irreversible damage to the land ecologically and culturally. They asked the Court to issue an injunction to halt the construction. In April 2024, the court rejected their demands, citing that the plaintiffs filed their claims too late and the Bureau had already fulfilled its obligations to identify historic sites. The plaintiffs appealed. On 6 June 2024, a US District Judge dismissed the claims on the same grounds. The environmentalists are likely to appeal. In April 2024, they asked a US federal Court of Appeals to intervene in their case.