AGE – The Navajo Generating Station could get a lifeline from U.S. Congress through a new bill that would keep the plant open beyond 2019.
The Navajo Generating Station in LeChee, Arizona, is set to close at the end of December 2019 since the five utility owners are exiting the plant now that the economics clearly favor cleaner energy sources.
In response to lower priced power in the market, the coal-fired power plant’s largest customer has also begun buying less power from the plant.
The new bill was drafted by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona), whose “discussion draft” of a bill would exempt any new lease for continued operations at NGS and at Peabody Energy’s Kayenta Mine from the National Environmental Policy Act, which provides comparative analysis of impacts to air, water, land, people, and wildlife and allows members of the public to stay informed on major federal agency decisions.
 The legislation would also require NGS’s largest customer, the Central Arizona Project, to purchase as much of its total power requirements as possible from the plant. This action could cost CAP and their customers several million dollars each year.

In fact, a 2016 state audit found the “cost per unit of NGS energy was considerably higher than energy available on the open market,” and analysis from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis found that CAP could save up to $61 million annually by purchasing power from the open market rather than from NGS.
The legislation would also exempt the plant from the Clean Air Act’s program to clean up haze in the Grand Canyon National Park while eliminating judicial review for that section.
The legislation however would prevent Salt River Project, the operator of the plant, from moving forward with decommissioning activities that would prepare the plant to close in 2019, when the current lease expires.
According to research by the IEEFA, the only way to keep the plant open beyond 2019 would be for either the federal government – or electricity ratepayers – to provide $2 billion to $3 billion in subsidies.
Peabody announced earlier this month that it was suing CAP to compel it to keep buying high-priced power from the plant. The lawsuit cites promises made by Congress in 1968 that the plant and mine would operate through 2044.
“If NGS closes, Kayenta Mine would be forced to close as well,” Hopi Chairman Tim Nuvangyama said on April 12, during a House Committee on Natural Resources meeting in Washington, D.C. “We suffer from an unemployment rate of 75 percent. The Hopi Tribe is landlocked. We lack clean water, reliable electricity–– These are unthinkable, but this is reality. It is time for the U.S. to live up to its obligations. We do need to find a new owner. I know it’s a daunting task.”  
Page, Arizona, native Marie Justice, president of United Mine Workers Local 1924, also testified that day on the important role NGS has on Native American families in the region.    
“This is a complex issue and to fully understand this matter, one must be aware of the history if the plant were to close.”