KJZZ is a service of Rio Salado College,
and Maricopa Community Colleges

Copyright © 2025 KJZZ/Rio Salado College/MCCCD
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Conservation groups play a role in evaluating clean energy projects on public lands

Vice President Kamala Harris recently dropped by Tonopah to help break ground for a power transmission line.

The project is part of an ongoing effort to bring clean energy to the Southwest.

The project will stretch from the Tonopah area to Southern California.

Much of it is on remote desert ground overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

The agency has embraced the concept of using its lands for clean energy, but some of those areas also serve as animal habitat.

Early drafts routed the line through Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.

Mike Quigley of the Wilderness Society said that conservationists recommended another route.

"And indeed in the end that’s what the BLM and the project proponent ended up with was that alternative routing. So we were quite happy with the outcome there," Quigley said.

He said that public lands can play an important role in the face of climate change.

Ron Dungan was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2020 to 2024.