[font face=Serif][font size=5]Native Americans challenge construction of Mojave Desert solar plant[/font]

By Louis Sahagun
December 12, 2014

[font size=3]A federally recognized Indian tribe has filed a lawsuit to block construction of a solar energy facility that will replace 4,000 acres of ancestral homelands in the Mojave Desert with reflective photovoltaic panels.

The Colorado River Indian Tribes’ lawsuit claims the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s environmental impact statement for the project failed to adequately take into account its effects on the area’s ecosystem, cultural resources, groundwater and the Colorado River.

The tribal group with sovereignty over a 245,000-acre reservation near the work site also claimed that the BLM violated federal law by authorizing construction of Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources’ Blythe II project without first holding “government-to-government” consultations.

The lawsuit aims to delay or permanently enjoin the BLM from “permitting ground disturbing activities” within the project site and from issuing any further notice to proceed until the agency complies with the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act.

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