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What we have been working on lately. Your support will keep us going:
Basin and Range Watch supports renewable energy, but only in the right places. Not on thriving biodiverse ecosystems or culturally important landscapes. The Trump Administration has paused "green" projects with administrative roadblocks, but many have not been eliminated while several transmission and mining projects are moving forward.
Basin and Range Watch is following the green energy land-rush throughout the Basin and Range Province that will greatly impact biological, cultural, hydrological, visual resources and socioeconomics in the region. We are also following several mining proposals, and policy changes to laws like the Endangered Species Act. We have joined two lawsuits - one to challenge the approval of the Greenlink West Transmission Project through remote sections of wild Nevada. Donations will help pay for the complaint against the Interior Department's approval of Greenlink West. The other lawsuit seeks legal protection for the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.
- Basin and Range Watch joined a lawsuit with Friends of Nevada Wilderness challenging the Department of the Interior's approval of the Greenlink West Transmission Project. The project is now under construction and threatens desert tortoises, rare plants, archeology sites, wilderness quality lands, Ice Age fossils, National Park Service lands, bi-state sage-grouse, and visual landscapes. The project would also enable tens of thousands of acres of large-scale solar projects on remote Nevada public lands. One of the goals is for it to provide power to data centers.
- Basin and Range Watch joined a lawsuit with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility to safeguard the Old Spanish National Historic Trail from multiple encroachments and development proposals on public lands. The Old Spanish National Historic Trail is under eco-assault and has been denied the legal protections it deserves. Congress designated the Old Spanish National Historic Trail by statute in 2002 which spans 2,700 miles and crosses through wild and scenic country in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The National Trails System Act requires that within two fiscal years of designation, the Interior Secretary must submit to Congress a comprehensive plan for the management and use of the trail. This never happened and the trail is threatened by oil and gas leases, large-scale solar development, transmission, and more.
- Basin and Range Watch worked with a hydrologist and submitted two water protests with the Nevada Division of Water Resources for the Copper Rays Solar Project south of Pahrump, Nevada. Leeward Energy wants to drill two wells on the proposed solar site and extract 500 acre feet of water for dust control on the 4,400 acre site. The water drawdown could impact and kill honey mesquite trees on the site which support local wildlife, cause a drawdown that could impact nearby local wells, and take water out of the Lower Amargosa River Watershed.
- Basin and Range Watch is submitting two water protests with the Nevada Division of Water Resources for the Libra Solar Project, a 5,000 acre solar project approved by the BLM in September, 2024, near Yerington, NV. The company, SB Solar, wants to use 1,500 acre feet of water for construction dust mitigation. The water use could contribute to drawdown of local wells and take more water out of the overdrafted Walker River Basin.
- Basin and Range Watch is opposing the Soda Mountain Solar Project which would be built on BLM lands adjacent to the Mojave National Preserve, California. The project would develop 2,700 acres next to the border of the preserve and impact desert bighorn sheep, visual resources, groundwater, the Old Spanish National Historic Trail and sand transport for the Mojave Fringe-toed lizard. The project is undergoing an Environmental Impact Review with the State of California.
- Basin and Range Watch submitted a formal protest with the Bureau of Land Management over the Final Environmental Impact Statement approving the Greenlink North Transmission Project - a 235-mile 525 kV transmission project proposed for the Loneliest Road in America (US 50) through essential sage grouse habitat in Nevada. It would enable huge solar and wind projects and power data centers.
- Basin and Range Watch is monitoring and opposing changes to weaken the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, the Public Lands Rule, and the National Environmental Policy Act.
- Basin and Range Watch is following 4 lithium mine proposals in Nevada and one in Arizona.
- Basin and Range Watch is tracking geothermal proposals and new plans for data centers in the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts.
- Basin and Range Watch asked the Nevada Division of Forestry not to issue a permit to NV Energy to develop the Greenlink West Transmission Project over habitat for the rare and Nevada Endanged Sodaville milkvetch on Sarcobatus Flat, Nevada.
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