Navajo Nation fighting environmentalists over coal?
November 2nd, 2009
The Arizona Republic reports today about a green controversy that has arisen on the Navajo Nation Reservation over coal-fired power plants.
The press reports that on one side is Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation, who is apparently rejecting the notion of climate change, and on the other side are environmentalists opposed to power plants in Indian Country and to the coal mines that provide their fuel. Caught in the middle are tribal citizens concerned with economic survival and the protection of sacred lands.
The dispute centers on fundamental questions of religion and heritage, as well as tribal finances.
The Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona, uses coal from mines on Black Mesa, and employs hundreds of tribal citizens and helps finance the tribal government. The Natioin is proposing a new project, the Desert Rock Energy Project, for western New Mexico, and which has been under consideration for years. The $3 billion plant would be fueled by coal from a new mine, bringing more jobs and revenue to the Navajos.
The Environmental Protection Agency wants the Navajo Generating Station to install costly air-scrubbing equipment, an expense the tribe and some Arizona utility companies say could lead to the plant’s closure. Environmental groups, which have targeted the plant for years because of the emissions-related haze that builds up over the Grand Canyon, applaud the scrubbers.
President Shirley apparently challenges the very theory of worldwide climate change.
Last month, Shirley criticized the Sierra Club, Grand Canyon Trust and other green organizations for interfering with Navajo sovereignty and caring more about insects or fish than the lives of Native Americans. The rebuke was especially stunning from the leader of a tribe that has for years aligned itself with green groups in political causes.
The Navajo reservation covers portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, with an estimated population over 250,000. Shirley said his priority is to help the Navajo people, who suffer from an unemployment rate over 50 percent, with average annual incomes under $15,000.
