The potential for renewable energy development in the Southwest is tremendous, but two top officials in President Obama’s administration said Monday much work needs to be done to meet the challenges of exporting that power to market.
The Associated Pressl reports Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz were among dozens of state and tribal officials who met in Santa Fe as part of the administration’s effort to develop recommendations regarding the transmission, storage and distribution of energy.
Jewell and Moniz said one of the biggest challenges has been working across state lines and Native American jurisdictions to site and permit transmission and pipeline projects. They pointed to the $2 billion SunZia project between New Mexico and Arizona as one example.
The proposed transmission line was stalled for months until the Department of Defense offered a compromise this spring that eased concerns about the project’s effects on operations at a missile range in southern New Mexico.
One of the focuses of the New Mexico meeting was the federal government’s relationship with tribes, which have vast reserves of coal, other fossil fuels and renewable energy potential. Experts have estimated that solar and wind energy from tribal lands alone could supply a significant percentage of the nation’s annual electricity needs.
