Tribes Challenge California Solar Project
Nimby Indians try to block solar power project.
Looking at the map the reservation is the other side of the city of Palo Verde and the river, in a desert area sandwiched between a prison, the local airport and the city of Palo Verde. I don’t see the harm.
Colorado River Indian Tribes asked a federal judge to reverse approval of the Blythe solar project in the Mojave Desert, claiming the 4,000-acre project will disturb ancestral burial grounds.
Colorado River Indian Tribes - which include Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajos - sued the Department of Interior and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Dec. 4 under the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Land Policy Management Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.
The tribes want a judge to rescind federal approval of the Blythe Solar facility, which would generate 485 megawatts of solar electricity on 4,000 acres of federal land. The tribes’ reservation is a few miles to the northeast of the project.
The tribes say the area of is of great cultural and religious significance to them, as they are “strongly connected to the physical environment of the area, including the ancient trails, petroglyphs, grindstones, hammerstones, and other cultural resources known to exist there.”