FOUR CORNERS MONUMENT -- This rugged landscape of expansive mesas and towering rock formations -- home to the Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo and Ute Indian tribes and a half-dozen federal monuments and parks -- is poised to become an engine of electric power production for Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and other boom cities of the West.
By 2012, the Four Corners could host as many as three large coal-fired power plants generating a combined 5,300 megawatts, enough to power 4 million homes and businesses. Two of those plants would be on Navajo Nation land, burnishing the tribe's reputation as a major regional electricity exporter.
|
| Click the map for a larger version. Map courtesy of the Navajo government. |
The surge in power production from Indian lands -- especially from the Navajo reservation -- reflects the priorities of tribal leaders, who only recently gained more autonomy from the federal government to negotiate business deals to trade Indian-owned natural resources for cash and the promise of greater private-sector investment.
The Navajos, more than any other Western tribe, have worked to profit from energy development and reverse a century of entrenched poverty that defines life for nearly half the 180,000 people who live on a reservation the size of West Virginia, which sprawls across northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah and northwestern New Mexico.
But critics warn that the tribe's pursuit of energy dollars, and especially its push to mine and sell more coal, places the Navajos in direct conflict with the trend toward cleaner energy development and lower emissions of greenhouse gases. They also say burning more coal could ultimately cost the tribe financially and compromise its members' health and well-being.
Problems linked to coal combustion are not unusual in the West. People in northern New Mexico, for example, have been warned against eating fish from about two dozen water bodies because of high levels of mercury, a toxin linked to coal-fired power emissions. And haze from high levels of soot, dust and other pollutants has reduced visibility at landmarks such as the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde National Park, according to a 2007 report by the Four Corners Air Quality Task Force.
Moreover, opponents of the Navajo's pro-growth energy policies say, the tribe is already scarred by an earlier era when the government's pursuit of another Navajo energy resource, uranium, exposed thousands of members of the tribe to radioactive wastes. Chronic illness linked to uranium poisoning afflicts hundreds of Navajos, many of whom worked in the uranium mines between 1947 and 1971.
Uranium mining has been banned on Navajo lands since 2005, but the tribe's president, Joe Shirley Jr., and a majority of the Navajo Tribal Council, whose 88 members represent 110 local chapters across three states, have no problems with coal.
| Q&A with Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. | ||
E&E: What is your vision of the Navajo Nation's energy production? Shirley: Certainly we have a lot of natural resources here. We have a lot of wind in our open spaces, a lot of solar. I think there's some geothermal resource there. Certainly we have oil, natural gas, and we have another 100 to 150 years of coal. These are all the natural resources that we have shared in times past and are continuing to want to share. Of course, not only share, but develop it to where we benefit from it, and getting back to standing on our own feet. That's what it's all about. E&E: Do you believe Navajo Nation has underused coal? Would you like to significantly expand coal use? Shirley: We have more than 100 years of coal left to mine. Given that, I don't see us as a nation just sitting back and leaving the coal there. ... We want to continue to mine it because what it means to us ultimately is jobs.
E&E: Some states are steering away from coal because of concerns about its greenhouse gas emissions. Does that play into your thinking about energy development? Shirley: That's a resource that was put there by the Creator for us to use. ... To have the Creator bring that about, and then to say, 'Hey, we don't want that,' I don't think that's right. We need to develop it. Rather than putting $12 billion into killing people across the big waters, why don't they put those dollars into research and look at this clean coal technology. The carbon sequestration, we need to do that. We can continue to develop coal and then develop the technology where there's no emissions out there. E&E: Why not focus on renewable energy projects and develop Navajo Nation as a hub of clean energy? Shirley Certainly our focus on Navajo lands here is also with wind. There are a number of companies out here researching and developing it, and we're supporting that. We're supporting solar, we've been into solar for a while. We have houses out there that are powered up by solar panels. That's been decades, so they can't tell us that we're not looking at solar. ... We're looking at everything. E&E: Does the idea of capping U.S. carbon dioxide emissions concern you, given Navajo Nation's energy plans? Shirley: I think it would be an injustice to go forward with these laws without at the same time ... putting monies into research to do it better, to do it cleaner. We have all these power plants out here. Just to say we're going to have a set a laws to put a cap on all of these [emissions], I don't think that's right. E&E: Do you believe power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide are having an impact on climate? Shirley: I don't know exactly what that does, but if there's anything going on negative about that, Navajos didn't put that there. You know what I'm saying. The Navajos don't own a power plant today, and we haven't put carbon dioxide out there other than the vehicles we drive. E&E: What are your primary concerns about Navajo environmental health? Shirley: It's across the board. It's everything. Someone has said that the Navajo nation is 30 years behind the times, and I say I believe it because I see it out there. ... I have elderly out there, people who are physically challenged, veterans, single mothers out there who are in need of housing. They're living in shacks today. ... Hantavirus, we have it. These rodents are in these shacks. If that's not pollution, I don't know what is. E&E: Do you consider the environmental movement an ally? Shirley: If you're just saying 'no, no, no, no' to whatever the Navajo Nation or Native America is wanting to do as far as the environment, I don't think you're a friend. Like I said, we need all the help we can get. We need help developing clean coal technology. Where are the enviros? I understand they have big money. Well, Desert Rock needs about $4 billion to put on that carbon sequestration. Why not put it there rather than just say 'no, no, no' to us. -- Daniel Cusick |
Shirley, a lean 61-year-old, spoke recently about the tribe's energy priorities at his office at Window Rock, Ariz., the Navajo Nation's headquarters since 1936. A former administrator with the Navajo Division of Social Services, Shirley is bullish on energy development, which he sees as the tribe's path to economic and social well-being.
"Well, certainly, it's all about independence, from my perspective," Shirley said. "When people have jobs, it means they're able to bring food to the table, put shoes on little feet, put gasoline in their ride that is out there so they can haul the water, the wood, whatever. And then it means monies into the nation's coffers, more money that goes to direct services that are out there, whether it's law enforcement, social workers, you name it," he said.
Under Shirley's tenure, the Navajos have committed to three large coal-fired power projects that if completed could account for nearly $4 billion in outside investment and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
The largest venture is the 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock Energy Project, a pulverized coal plant to be built on Navajo land about 30 miles southwest of Farmington, N.M. The project, whose air permits are under review by EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, is a joint venture between the tribe's energy development agency, the Diné Power Authority (Diné, meaning "the people," is often used in lieu of Navajo to refer to the tribe), and Sithe Global Power LLC, an international merchant generator with offices in New York and Houston.
Announced in 2003 by Sithe's predecessor, Steag Power, Desert Rock has become a kind of Holy Grail for its backers. They say its construction, along with a new 470-mile transmission line linking the Four Corners to points west, not only will serve critical energy needs in the Southwest, but will help fulfill the Navajos' long-held dream for economic security.
Steven Begay, the Diné Power Authority's general manager and top Navajo official overseeing the project, described Desert Rock as the centerpiece of the Navajo Nation's energy development plan and the largest chit in the tribe's economic development basket, with expected annual revenues of between $50 million and $52 million.
"As a tribe, we cannot turn down that kind of investment," Begay said. "The Navajo need to develop our own resources, and Desert Rock is going to help us do that. We know there's a market for new power in the region, and there's also a demonstrated need for the Nation to find new sources of income."
Most of that income will come from sales of Navajo coal for the plant's two 750-megawatt supercritical boilers. Also, Sithe Global will pay royalties to the tribe for cooling water, make ground lease payments on the plant site, and pay other taxes and fees, including to build and maintain roads, extend water and sewer lines, and promote community development near the plant. And unlike with previous energy projects, in which the lion's share of profits went to outside firms, the Navajos have been offered a 25 percent ownership stake in the plant.
Dirk Straussfeld, Sithe Global's executive vice president in charge of the Desert Rock project, said his company is going beyond the standard expectations for utilities developing power projects in sensitive areas. As evidence, he points to the planned use of technology that will allow the plant to cool its turbines using 80 percent less water than conventional coal plants, and the plant's low emission thresholds for several pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
Moreover, he said, Sithe Global committed to helping the tribe mover toward cleaner and more efficient use of its vast coal reserves, which are expected to continue producing for another 100 to 150 years.
In the Four Corners region, BHP Billiton mines an estimated 15.4 million short tons per year from Navajo reserves to meet demand at the Four Corners and San Juan plants, while in neighboring Arizona, Peabody Western Coal Co. mines more than 8 million tons per year from the tribally owned Kayenta Mine under a joint lease agreement with the Navajo and Hopi tribes. Most of the Kayenta Mine's coal goes to fuel another power plant on tribal lands, the 2,250-megawatt Navajo Generating Station in Page, Ariz.
And just last month, the federal Office of Surface Mining extended Peabody's lease rights to an adjacent mine, known as Black Mesa, that had not produced coal since 2005 when the mine's largest customer, the Mojave Generating Station in Nevada, ceased operations. Officials said the new permit would allow Peabody to continue mining at Kayenta until 2026.
But what proponents see as a boon to a critical Navajo industry -- coal mining -- others see as the tribe yoking itself to a fossil fuel whose days are numbered, especially if Congress and the Obama administration impose industrywide caps on emissions of carbon dioxide. New regulations could cost the coal-fired power sector billions of dollars to account for existing emissions as well as to take measures to capture and store CO2 from new plants.
For Desert Rock, whose projected CO2 emissions will exceed 12 million tons per year, the cost of burning coal without CO2 controls could cut deeply into its owner's bottom line.
|
| Environmental activists, including members of the Navajo Nation, say the tribe already suffers from the harmful effects of excessive coal plant pollution, such as that emitted by the 2,040-megawatt Four Corners Power Plant near Farmington, N.M. Photo by Daniel Cusick. |
"If I were a betting man, I wouldn't be putting my money on a plant with that kind of CO2 output," said Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico field director for the San Juan Citizens Alliance, an opponent of the project.
Other critics, including some Navajos, argue that the tribe's pursuit of coal wealth runs counter to its commitment to be a good steward of sacred natural resources, including the San Juan River Basin and the sculpted mesas of the Four Corners region and the greater Colorado Plateau. They point to massive amounts of pollution already being emitted by the Four Corners' existing power plants and wonder how regulators could make room for another.
"Our leaders say more mines and more power plants will bring wealth to the Navajos. But we've been mining this rock for decades, and we are still a poor people," said Dailan Long, an organizer with the Navajo environmental group Diné CARE, which has filed a legal challenge aimed at revoking Desert Rock's air pollution permits.
"Even for people who have worked in the industry before, they understand that the removal of Navajo resources has never meant more money for their communities," added Long, whose father and brother have worked jobs in the Navajo mining and power sectors. "They know the ins and outs of this business better than anybody. It's boom and bust."
Other Navajos, however, remain optimistic that big energy projects like Desert Rock will create jobs, boost incomes and improve living conditions for generations to come.
Arthur Bavaro, manager of the tribe's Nenahnezad Chapter, which expects to share in the revenue generated by Desert Rock, said his community expects to reap numerous benefits from the new plant, including jobs, worker training, scholarship support for college-bound students, and direct investment in the chapter's building projects and social service programs.
Bavaro said his views are shaped by experience. Since the 1960s, Nenahnezad residents have lived downwind of the giant Four Corners Power Plant, one of the nation's largest coal-burning facilities, and the Navajo Mine, one of two coal mines operated by the Australian conglomerate BHP Billiton under a lease agreement with the tribe.
"I know we will find a way to adjust," Bavaro said of a possible new Navajo coal boom. "The Navajo way of thinking is adaptive. It's not doom and gloom. With this plant, the Nation is finally doing something to improve its own."
E&E is the leading source for comprehensive, daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy.
Click here to start a free trial to E&E -- the best way to track policy and markets.
Advertisement
Email this Story
Print this Story
