The comments of Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director Center for Biological Diversity -

a transcription of testimony offered to the Nevada Senate Growth and Infrastructure

Committee regarding SB448 on May 17, 2021.

We are strong proponents of the renewable energy transition and it's complete decarbonisation
of our economy. And there are many measures in this bill that we do support, but we must
oppose SB448 as written.

This bill takes a shoot first, ask questions later approach with regard to the deployment of
transmission lines and large- scale renewable energy production. SB448 completely forgoes
any level of comprehensive planning or environmental review, instead just throwing the doors
open to our public lands with new transmission lines accelerating huge amounts of new
industrial energy production in remote parts of our state.

Large-scale renewable energy production and high voltage transmission line deployment can
have significant environmental impacts on wildlife, public lands, water resources, and historically
marginalized communities. Just since the introduction of Greenlink West at the PUC, a dozen or
more solar energy projects have been proposed along its potential alignment. And while that
might sound like a good thing to most people, this has been done with no planning at all for
where these projects will go. In some cases, they're cited in disastrously bad places for wildlife
and the environment, or right on the doorstep of national parks.

Instead of instructing state agencies to complete a clear-eyed, comprehensive review of where

renewable energy might be appropriate in this state, SB448, would throw open the doors to our
most wild and pristine landscapes and rely on the tender mercies of the market and fossil fuel
companies like NV energy to decide the fate of Nevada's wild lands.

And that really gets to a fundamental problem here. NV Energy is the fossil fuel industry. Their
decades of polluting our climate has put us on the brink of climate disaster. And now we're going
to let them be in the driver's seat while we try to clean up their mess and avoid climate
catastrophe. Again, we appreciate some of the elements of this bill, but SB448, will result in
significant harm to our public lands and wildlife and we must oppose. We support renewable
energy but not like this. Thank you.