The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week rejected a massive pumped hydropower proposal on the Navajo Nation in Arizona, cementing a new agency policy to no longer advance energy projects opposed by tribes whose land would be affected.
The Navajo Nation filed comments last month opposing the proposed Big Canyon Pumped Hydro project, which would have dammed the Lower Colorado River and flooded hundreds of acres to create reservoirs to store and dispatch power. The tribe warned that the storage project could create “adverse impacts” to water and cultural resources, as well as the tribe’s water rights.
Those comments were enough to nix the project’s preliminary permit application, which had been pending since 2020.
In a unanimous decision, FERC’s three current members wrote that “because the proposed project would be located entirely on Navajo Nation land and the Nation has stated that it opposes issuance of the permit, we deny the application.”
