Last week, I attended and spoke at the Department of the Interior’s listening tours regarding the closing of the Navajo Generating Station. After four meeting in four days, I was dismayed at the dismal turn out. Few from the NW Reservation were heard, except one brave woman who spoke in support of the continued funding of education through coal royalties. Only the presence of the Peabody Coal workers (who attended every session) brought any balance to the proceedings. There were people who used scare tactics and intimidation in their support of closing the plant. At the meeting in the Hopi village of Kykotsmovi, their leaders spoke of the massive losses their people will suffer if NGS closes.
Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye has been quoted in numerous newspaper articles claiming to have worked very hard to keep the plant open, including trips to Washington, DC. Yet in a recent (5/2/17) Vice News interview, he admits to wanting the plant closed.  
In 2008, the Department of Energy and the BIA gave grant money to the Navajo/Hopi Land Commission Office to study the 22,000 acre Paragon Ranch in New Mexico for its solar energy potential. (That land was set aside for people relocated in the Navajo/Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974). They took the grant money, yet 10 years later there are no solar farms on the Paragon-Bitsi Ranch. White Mesa was promised running water 30 years ago. White Mesa has no running water today. The list is long of promises made, promises broken.
The “green” energy of solar, cannot replace the stable 24/7 energy produced by NGS nor the jobs and income from the Kayenta Mine and the railroad. It takes approximately 1,200 acres of solar panels to generate 100 megawatts of power. The NGS sits on about 1,700 acres. This site alone would go from 2,250 megawatts down to around 120 and maybe 10 jobs.

The Kayenta Solar Project (a 38 megawatt DC plant) is reportedly 75 percent complete. Isolux Corsan is the contractor on this project. Does anyone remember Solyndra? (They went bankrupt after taking over $500 million in solar subsidies from the federal government.) Isolux Corsan’s Spanish division is seeking $945 million in Chapter 15 protection in a New York court. They are also in trouble on a large highway project in Indiana, another project in Bolivia and a high-speed train in Madrid. Isolux Corsan is under investigation by the justice department for money laundering, tax evasion and forgery on a project in Mexico. Let’s hope the Kayenta project goes online before Isolux Corsan goes bankrupt. We sure can pick ‘em!
With a 42 percent unemployment rate on the Navajo Reservation and even higher on the Hopi Reservation, these rates will climb alarmingly high if the plant shuts down. Our neighbors in Page and the surrounding communities will also be economically devastated.
I will continue to fight to keep the Navajo Generating Station open. There are compromises all sides can make. Take one generator out and replace those megawatts with solar, for example. Are tribal leaders asking too much of an increase in leases and royalties? We know the government is not going to ‘SAVE’ us. We must stand up and be heard. Contact the Navajo Tribal Council members. Ask them how they plan to replace the millions of dollars lost, thousands of jobs lost and many closed businesses, because solar alone cannot. Email the Depsrtment of the Interior at ngs@usbr.gov. Send in a letter to the editor. The future is now.
Please help us save the Navajo Generating Station.