Last year, federal land managers approved the path for the construction of a massive power-line project meant to deliver more green energy to customers across the country.
Dubbed Greenlink West, the multi-billion-dollar project proposes building a 472-mile transmission line across the length of Nevada from Reno to Las Vegas, eventually connecting more than a dozen commercial-scale solar projects to the grid. That includes a proposed solar facility in Esmerelda County known as the Esmeralda 7, a roughly 62,000-acre project. It’s sited on a 185-square-mile swath of land about the size of Las Vegas. If built, it would become the largest solar farm in North America.
However, a pair of Nevada-based environmental groups is suing the federal government for approving the project. They say federal land managers failed to do their due diligence when the agency did not take into account the construction of the proposed solar facilities equal to the size of Las Vegas when approving the project's final Environmental Impact Statement. Calling it a “dereliction of duty.”
They’re asking a federal judge to halt the project's construction until it is brought back into compliance with federal law.
Shaaron Netherton, executive director, Friends of Nevada Wilderness
