Environment | Law | National

Tribe questions fast-tracking of solar energy projects by Obama administration

Friday, September 4, 2015

Solar panels at the Genesis Solar Energy Project in Riverside County in California. Some 3,000 artifacts were removed from the site and the Colorado River Indian Tribes are seeking to reclaim the items. Photo by Thecyrgroup / Wikipedia

As President Barack Obama sounded the alarm this week about the dangers facing Native communities due to climate change, a tribe in the Lower 48 continued its fight to protect some of its most important sites from destruction.

In remarks in Alaska and at the recent National Clean Energy Summit, Obama touted renewable energy as one way to address climate change. He noted that his administration has approved a slew of solar projects since 2009.

"In fact, over the past six years, the federal government has approved 34 commercial-scale solar projects and the transmission infrastructure that goes with them on public lands across the West," Obama said to applause at the summit in Las Vegas on August 24, just a week before his historic trip to Alaska.

But leaders of the Colorado River Indian Tribes are questioning the push. By fast-tracking solar projects, they contend the administration has failed to consider the impacts on their sacred sites and cultural resources in California.

President Barack Obama waits to speak at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 24, 2015. Photo by Pete Souza / White House

"The Colorado River Indian Tribes is not opposed to responsible solar energy development, but CRIT is deeply concerned about the way the Obama administration has allowed utility-scale renewable energy projects to be sited in areas which contain known and irreplaceable tribal cultural resources and landscapes," Chairman Dennis Patch said.

At one point, tribal leaders counted at least 40 developments within 50 miles of the reservation but two with similar names are of particular concern. One is the Blythe Solar Power Project and the other is the Blythe Mesa Solar Power Project, which Obama mentioned by name during his speech last week.

The tribe sued the Bureau of Land Management last year for approving the 4,138-acre Blythe Solar Power Project. The complaint accused the agency of moving too quickly without addressing the impacts on cultural resources.

A federal judge, however, refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the agency, ruling that construction work would not pose "irreparable harm" to ancestral remains, artifacts or other cultural resources at the site. The tribe has declined to appeal but Patch said the objections remain.

The site of the Blythe Solar Power Project in Blythe, California. Photo from Basin and Range Watch

"As the federal government supports the push to industrialize public lands, CRIT fights to hold the federal government accountable to its duty to properly consult with tribes and minimize harm to cultural resources, such as building projects to avoid known sites and features and allowing for the reburial of cultural items which are inevitably disturbed during the construction of solar energy projects," Patch said.

Work is slated to begin this year on the development, which was beset by financial problems.

Separately, the tribe continues to fight the Blythe Mesa Solar Power Project. A lawsuit filed in state court accuses Riverside County of approving the 3,660-acre project without considering the impacts on lands sacred to the Mohave and Chemehuevi peoples, two of the tribes that make up CRIT's membership.

Tribal Secretary Amanda Barrera said the county should have consulted the tribe and its elders about the locations of burial grounds at the site, which lies just eight miles from the reservation border. The area is also home to tribal trails.

A view of the reservation of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The 300,000-acre reservation stretches along the Colorado River in both California and Arizona. Photo by Jessica Ledezma / Facebook

“These resources have remained intact for millennia, but now are threatened by ever increasing pressure to develop the Mohave Desert with utility scale solar facilities," Barrera said.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said the BLM consulted with more than a dozen tribes prior to giving its seal of approval for the project, which Obama said will produce enough power to supply more than 145,000 homes in California. The record of decision indicated just one "government-to-government" meeting with CRIT.

The tribe, along with others in the area, also raised concerns about yet another renewable energy development that is already under construction. Some 3,000 artifacts were removed at the Genesis Solar Power Project, also in Riverside County.

Patch said the tribe is seeking to reclaim the items "so that our tribal resources do not become somebody else’s butterfly collection"

"The United States has prioritized placement of solar energy projects in our traditional homelands," Patch added. "CRIT will continue to seek to address the harm caused by these projects because we should not be asked to pay for the country’s clean energy' future with our history, culture, and spiritual beliefs and traditional homelands. CRIT remains firmly dedicated to preserving our footprint within our traditional lands."