Interior Department greenlights $2 billion Southwest transmission line

Albuquerque, N.M. — The U.S. Interior Department approved the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project, a major infrastructure project for the American West. The $2 billion project will help enable future development of wind and solar energy from New Mexico and Arizona, providing renewable power to the growing desert Southwest region.

The project will construct, operate and maintain two parallel 500-kilovolt transmission lines and ancillary facilities located on federal, state and private lands between the proposed SunZia East Substation in Lincoln County, N.M., and the existing Pinal Central Substation in Pinal County, Arizona, a distance of about 515 miles.

All told, the project has the potential to enable the addition of 3,000 megawatts of electric capacity to the desert Southwest, unlocking access to world-class wind and solar resources that cannot currently access the Western grid.

The addition of 3,000 megawatts of renewable energy would provide sustainable power for more than one million homes while avoiding 4.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year – the equivalent of taking 890,000 cars off the nation’s highways.

The project is expected to create over 6,000 jobs during construction and support over 100 permanent jobs once online. The project will also open the door for new renewable energy generation projects with the potential to create an additional 40,000 construction and operations jobs.

“The SunZia Project will help unlock the abundant renewable energy resources in the Southwest, creating jobs and bringing reliable, sustainable power to a growing corner of our country,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally. “I applaud all of our partners that collaborated to ensure that this infrastructure charts a course that makes sense for our economy, environment and national security.”

Working closely with the Department of Defense, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) identified mitigation measures to protect military capabilities at the nearby White Sands Missile Range, including burial of three segments totaling approximately five miles in Socorro and Torrance counties. The route of the transmission lines also avoids major population centers and cultural sites, and parallels existing power lines, highways and pipelines where possible.

The SunZia Project is one of six priority projects of the Obama Administration’s Rapid Response Team for Transmission, which works to improve the overall quality and timeliness of permitting for electric transmission infrastructure. When built, these projects will help increase electric reliability, integrate new renewable energy into the grid, and save consumers money. SunZia is the first of the priority projects approved in its entirety in the West by the BLM.

“The SunZia transmission line will finally unlock New Mexico’s stranded wind and solar resources and move that energy to market,” said U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich. “This infrastructure investment will not only spur many permanent clean energy jobs in generation, but it will also put thousands of people to work on the construction of this line.”

"New Mexico could lead the nation in wind and solar energy production, and transmission is the key to unleashing our clean energy potential," said U.S. Senator Tom Udall. "SunZia holds tremendous potential that could allow us to create thousands of jobs while cutting carbon pollution and saving communities and utility customers millions of dollars. I applaud the Interior Department and the Pentagon for working out the agreement that has made today's announcement possible."

Approval of the project follows an extensive public process initiated by the BLM in 2009 that included 14 cooperating federal and state agencies, three public scoping periods, 28 public meetings, and consultation with American Indian tribes and local governments. As part of its environmental review, the BLM identified appropriate mitigation measures to avoid, minimize, and compensate for impacts to resources and other issues of public concern. The Record of Decision completes the federal decision making process for the right-of-way across public lands. The project must still secure state and local permits and rights-of-way from private and state landowners before construction can begin.

The Record of Decision, Mitigation Proposal EA and associated documents are available online at www.blm.gov/nm/sunzia.