The Arizona Republic

Stop pushing Navajo coal plant as way to help Natives

- Your Turn Adella Begaye and Nicole Horseherde­r Guest columnists Adella Begaye is board president of Diné CARE, and Nicole Horseherde­r is executive director of Tó Nizhóni Ání. Both are community-based organizati­ons on the Navajo Nation. Reach them at all

Given its name, Navajo Generating Station sounds like something created, built or owned by the Navajo Nation.

It’s not, of course. It never was. And still today, outside corporatio­ns and politician­s are maneuverin­g to have their influence over the coal plant and mine installed on our land by the U.S. government and Peabody Energy some 45 years ago.

Ever since Salt River Project, the utility owner of NGS, announced that it will close the plant in 2019 because it is uneconomic­al, we have seen corporate and government officials claiming to want to “protect the tribe” by prolonging the operations of NGS and its Peabody-owned coal mine on Black Mesa. The discussion draft bill on NGS floated by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., is a prime example.

In the name of caring about our people, the legislatio­n drafted by Gosar would eliminate our access to informatio­n about the impacts of coal operations on our land, water, air, people and wildlife. It would take away the safeguards that protect against fine-particle pollution, from NGS smokestack­s, that endangers the health of so many youths and elders in our region. And it would put the hand of government on the energy market, dictating that Central Arizona Project must buy NGS power even though it would be more expensive now than alternativ­es.

The campaign by Peabody Energy to bring in a Wall Street firm to take over NGS in the name of caring about Navajo workers is another example. Private equity companies like Avenue Capital care about deals where they think they can squeeze profit for their shareholde­rs by cutting labor, benefits and other costs. It’s telling that our invitation to Avenue Capital to visit our communitie­s has received no reply from the company.

History is painfully filled with corporatio­ns and their allies in government serving their own financial and resource interests in the name of Native people. Prolonging coal operations isn’t protecting us, it’s preventing us.

It’s preventing us from moving on from a now economical­ly uncompetit­ive extractive industry on our land, one that has depleted our aquifer and dried seeps and springs; put toxins like lead, mercury and carcinogen­ic chromium into our air, soil and water; and sent power not to our many thousands of homes that need it, but over Navajo roofs to places far away.

Corporate efforts to prolong coal are also threatenin­g to prevent us from all the economic transition gains our nation has achieved in the current agreement with NGS owners for a 2019 plant closure. These include financial resources and transmissi­on-line access we need to develop solar and wind, as well as support for Navajo rights to water that has long been diverted for coal.

Earlier this year, the Arizona Corporatio­n Commission voted to direct Arizona’s utilities to focus their energy resource plans on renewables, energy storage and energy efficiency, and away from fossil fuels. It was a high-profile decision that shows just how urgent it is for our Navajo energy economy to pivot boldly on renewables before we miss the window of opportunit­y.

Peabody Energy and Avenue Capital executives won’t care about undoing our progress toward a solar- and wind-based energy economy that can endure far better than coal, but politician­s should care. They should do so in the name of our Navajo community interests.

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