EnergyOnline.com News
7/2/2009

LCG, July 2, 2009--The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)issued a letter Wednesday to Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and Sunflower Electric Power Corporation (Sunflower) directing Sunflower to restart the permit process for a proposed 895-MW, coal-fired unit planned at an existing electric generating station near Holcomb, Kansas.

The EPA's Regional Administrator stated,"The redesign of this new unit, as well as public input on the new project, will need to be considered in determining the form and content of any final permit."

In May, the new Governor of Kansas approved a settlement agreement with Sunflower that permits the construction of a single, 895-MW unit, rather than two, 700-MW units. With the settlement and subsequent passage of an energy plan supporting the coal-fired project by the Kansas Legislature, it appeared that the project, initially filed by Sunflower in 2006, would proceed to construction.

Governor Parkinson replaced Kathleen Sebelius, who is now U.S. Secretary for Health and Human Services. While governor, Ms. Sebelius denied an air quality permit for Sunflower's proposed coal-fired unit and vetoed three measures submitted by the Legislature to overturn the decision to reject the permit.

The EPA has recently challenged other coal projects. In April, the EPA filed for a "complete remand" of a prior air permit - issued by the EPA - for the 1,500-MW Desert Rock Energy Facility to be built in Navajo Nation lands in the Four Corners area. The Environmental Appeals Board, an EPA organization, will now decide if the permit issued will be sent back to the EPA's Pacific Southwest office for further review.

The EPA issued an air permit on July 31, 2008 for the Desert Rock Energy Facility. The application for the air permit was submitted in early 2004, and the EPA has one year to issue a decision by law. The project developers, Sithe Global Power LLC., and Dine Power Authority, an enterprise of the Navajo Nation, sued the EPA in March 2008, claiming that the EPA was delaying the permit.


Copyright © 2006 LCG Consulting. All rights reserved.

Source Link:

http://www.energyonline.com/Industry/News.aspx?NewsID=7366&New_Hurdle_for_Sunflower's_Coal-fired_Project_in_Kansas

Robin Bravender, E&E reporter
June 30, 2009

U.S. EPA is refuting developers' claims that the agency acted illegally when it asked to reconsider air permits for a controversial coal-fired power plant slated for Navajo Nation land in New Mexico.

Attorneys for the proposed 1,500-megawatt Desert Rock Energy facility -- a joint venture of Sithe Global Power LLC and the Navajo Nation -- argued earlier this month that the agency made an illegal and unprecedented request when it asked EPA's Environmental Appeals Board to send the plant's air permits back to the agency for reconsideration (Greenwire, June 12).

EPA told the board in April that it wanted to reconsider the possible effects the plant would have on soot emissions, endangered species and other issues (Greenwire, April 28).

In a brief filed yesterday, EPA's Region 9 office in San Francisco disputed developers' arguments that the agency had acted in bad faith when officials asked the board to remand the permits for further review.

"The charge of bad faith is groundless and utterly without merit," EPA attorneys wrote.

Central to the developers' argument was a charge that the agency was attempting to review the permits in order to retroactively apply new policies.

Desert Rock attorneys argued that a remand would violate Clean Air Act requirements that the air permit be approved or denied no later than one year after the date of filing a completed application. EPA's Region 9 office determined that Desert Rock's application was complete more than five years ago.

"The Board must now decide whether a new Administrator can simply change rules and policies without regard for procedural requirements and then apply those changes retroactively to a permit application that was submitted and found to be complete many years ago," according to the Desert Rock brief.

But EPA says that the Desert Rock permitting decision is not yet a final agency decision, and EPA's reconsideration would not amount to retroactively applying new requirements.

"The permit is not yet effective and the conditions of the permit and Region 9's justification for those conditions remain under review within the EPA," says the agency's brief.

By Lucy McFadden
THE COLORADO STATESMAN
Vol. 110, No. 25
June 19 2009

Gov. Bill Ritter has returned from the Western Governor’s Association’s 2009 Annual Meeting with renewed enthusiasm for Colorado’s renewable energy plans.

In a conference call to reporters from Park City, Utah, where the three-day meeting ended on Tuesday, Ritter said he would leave confident that Colorado is on the right policy path.

“This was a very productive couple of days,” Ritter said. “My time here demonstrated that Colorado is absolutely on the right path with job creation, protecting our natural heritage and leading Colorado forward on energy and climate issues.”

Ritter said that although the group — which is composed of the governors of 19 western states and three U.S. territories — had reached consensus on several significant points, much remains to be done concerning the placement of power lines that will transmit electricity to consumers from wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric hubs.

On Monday, the WGA released the Western Renewable Energy Zones — Phase 1 Report identifying 54 such hubs — areas across the West that have the potential to provide enough renewable energy to power 5 million homes.

Four potential energy hubs are located in Colorado — one in south central Colorado for solar and three potential wind-power hubs on the Eastern Plains.

However, before any transmission lines are strung, their impact on wildlife and environment must be assessed.

Ritter said placement of the lines requires multifaceted analysis that considers the role that utilities and private operators will have in financing the project, as well as the role of credit markets, which are in flux.

“The feds are not looking to pick up the entire tab on transmission,” Ritter remarked, noting the complexity of the environmental and economic situation.

Several members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet attended the meeting, and Ritter said he was able to speak directly to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, asking him for help in preventing fires as the electric transmission lines go through forests infested by pine beetles.

Ritter also advocated expanding the discussion of energy transmission from the WGA to a national platform at the next meeting of the National Governor’s Association.

The governors will partner with the Western Electricity Coordinating Council to decide which placement of transmission lines will best protect the wildlife and surrounding environment.

In addition to Vilsack, Obama’s Cabinet was represented, at the meeting by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff and Nancy Sutley, who leads the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Ritter said discussions with Chu concerning transmission of renewable energy and Colorado’s access to federal stimulus dollars had been particularly fruitful.

“[Members of Obama’s administration] spoke eloquently about the role that renewable energy plays in transmission,” Ritter said. “I was impressed by Steve Chu. Salazar was a great breath of fresh air [when it came to] his attitude around the development of renewable energy and the role that public lands can play in that.”

Ritter said when the group discussed natural gas, he had reaffirmed his support for the construction of the Ruby Pipeline, which is a 675-mile-long, 42-inch-wide natural gas pipeline that will stretch from Wyoming to Oregon.

“Natural gas is important in terms of national security and economy,” Ritter said.

On the other hand, Ritter said he had written to Sutley before the meeting to express his opposition to construction of the proposed coal-fired Desert Rock power plant.

“Desert Rock is a coal-fired plant that is going to be built in New Mexico that will send lots of pollution to southwest Colorado,” Ritter explained.

He said on a recent trip to the region he could see pollution billowing from New Mexico’s Four Corners Power Plant, which already serves that area.

“It’s important to reiterate my opposition to permitting the operation of Desert Rock,” Ritter said. “The [Obama] administration has responded in a positive way because they decided to look at the permitting of Desert Rock again. Sutley said she understood our concern and that they were looking at it with a fresh set of eyes.

“Anytime she wants to come see it, we’ll go. It is really clear if you stand on the southern corner of the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation. You can see the emissions coming into southwest Colorado,” he lamented.

On the topic of water scarcity, Ritter said, “the real interesting part of the discussion was that we had two water experts from Israel and Australia. They looked at climate change and the possibility of less precipitation, but there was great optimism among this panel.

Ritter said he regretted that the governors of California, Nevada and New Mexico had taken a pass on the meeting because he would have liked to discuss Colorado River issues with them. Nevertheless, he said, even without those governors, the conversation was optimistic.

— Lucy@coloradostatesman.com

Source Article Link: http://coloradostatesman.com/content/991102-ritter-upbeat-after-governors-conference

By Nellis Kennedy and Winona LaDuke
Navajo Times
June 18 2009

The recent EPA decision to withdraw Desert Rock’s air quality permit has prompted celebration across the Navajo Nation. This is a huge victory for everyone in the region who wishes to breathe clean air.

However, the victory is only temporary as the EPA is merely taking more time to assess the proposed coal-fired power plant before deciding whether to reissue the permit.

President Joe Shirley, Jr. complains the federal decision is an infringement on tribal sovereignty. But what, President Shirley, are you using sovereignty for?

If built, Desert Rock will be the 34th coal plant in the Southwest region. It is expected to release 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year, the same amount of carbon that Exxon Mobil sought to reduce in 2008, and up to 114 pounds of mercury emissions in the water. These are poisons.

The real question is: Should we use our sovereignty to as a right to pollute? The Navajo Nation should be using its sovereignty responsibly. The responsible use for Navajo sovereignty to make is to regulate carbon, not make more of it.

This is the council’s chance to make a responsible carbon decision. Your citizens are calling on you. Here lies an opportunity and challenge for the tribe to join hundreds of governments internationally who use their sovereignty to protect the future of their land and people.

A number of tribes have already take this monumental step to care for their people. In fact, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians found the need to sign so important that they signed the Kyoto protocol four years ago.

Also supporting the Kyoto protocol is the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians who unanimously adopted the Kyoto protocol four years ago. The Haida Nation has also made a cleaner commitment by signing. The Navajo Nation must not be left behind in the green economy.

The next economy is a green economy. Carbon will be regulated heavily as the catastrophic impacts of climate change accelerate. Why should Navajo people be stuck in an old economic system? Let’s be the Navajo Nation of the future!

The Navajo Green Jobs Coalition was organized to create green jobs because Navajo citizens are sick of working in dirty jobs that pose serious risks to their health, land, and water.

Comprised of several organizations, the coalition works to promote efficiency and has introduced a Navajo Green Economy Plan to the tribal council that will allocate funds for sustainable job opportunities.

Likewise, Dine CARE is also working to promote clean and sustainable living by presenting to the tribal council a 168-page document listing alternatives to Desert Rock.

In fact, tribal lands have the potential to generate an estimated 535 billion kWh/year of wind power and 17,000 billion kWh/year of solar electricity.

Navajo should have their fair opportunity to generate clean power without having to fight dirty projects in the process. The many voices of Navajo cannot go unheard forever.

The histories of all tribes are filled with dark stories of being caught in sad realities. Tribes find themselves in complex situations of poverty, violence, and addiction, but another coal plant will not wash these away.

Indians have longs survived the many eras of invasion and colonization by living sustainable lives and we have lost our way. We find ourselves mining, selling, and burning coal on our lands. It is time we find our way back to clean living.

Angry President Shirley speaks about a sovereign power to make decisions, but it is time our tribes begin fulfilling their sovereign responsibilities.

The Navajo government has repeatedly affirmed their support for Desert Rock, but the Navajo need a better plan. Navajo prosperity should not be dependent on the investment of dirty energy that will only come back to destroy the land we invest to protect.

The Navajo Nation needs to curb its dirty habits by making feasibly economic and responsible choices. If business continues as normal, Navajo will find themselves left behind in this new energy economy.

Call on tribal government today to stop investing in dirty energy and to begin limiting the poisons that we bring onto the reservation. Desert Rock is one of them and we don’t need it. Let your voice be heard.


Kennedy, Navajo, is national campaign associate with Honor the Earth. LaDuke is Honor the Earth executive director, a White Earth enrollee, an author and twice a vice presidential candidate with Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket.

Yá’át’eeh (Greetings) Readers,

In recent months, Desert Rock encountered a major hurdle: the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew the plant's air quality permit (Permit of Significant Deterioration) for further review!! Obtaining this permit is a crucial part of the regulatory process in order for Desert Rock to go forward as proposed. The US EPA initially approved the permit on July 31, 2008 but has since acknowledged serious deficiencies with Desert Rock and responded accordingly to appeals filed by Diné CARE and other organizations. The Environmental Appeals Board is looking into the matter and will consider the US EPA’s decision more thoroughly.

President Shirley, however, remains adamant that tribal sovereignty excludes Desert Rock from federal processes yet US EPA’s decision makes clear that federal jurisdiction does affect Desert Rock. Also following the US EPA’s decision, President Shirley requested a meeting with President Obama to discuss Desert Rock. To our knowledge, no such meeting has taken place as of this date, although Shirley did meet with US EPA Adminstrator, Lisa Jackson on June 10, 2009. No stories have developed from that meeting.

From Burnham, Diné CARE has been actively approaching members of the Obama administration in Washington DC to refute recent claims that Desert Rock is widely supported by Navajo tribal members. We presented detailed information regarding Desert Rock’s many technical and financial deficiencies and promoted our renewable energy report, "Energy and Economic Alternatives to the Desert Rock Energy Project" (2008), highlighting solar power and other renewable energies as a better alternative to constructing Desert Rock. We firmly believe that our tribal nation can be a leader in renewable energy technology.

On June 12, 2009, Desert Rock developers asked the Environmental Appeals Board to reconsider the air quality permit, stating the US EPA’s decision was unprecedented and is illegal.

According to Jeff Holmstead, an attorney representing the Desert Rock developers, Administrator Lisa Jackson "just wants to start the permitting process over again." Diné CARE is confident that the US EPA & the Environmental Appeals Board will address our legal and scientific concerns.

Best regards,
Dáilan J Long
Burnham, New Mexico

Wednesday, June 17 2009

by Joe Hanel
Herald Denver Bureau

DENVER - Backers of the proposed Desert Rock power plant have asked a federal appeals board to reinstate the plant's air-pollution permit, which the Environmental Protection Agency took back in April.

Meanwhile, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter pressed his argument against the New Mexico power plant to the White House's senior environmental official this week at a meeting in Park City, Utah.

Desert Rock took its case to the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board last Thursday, calling the permit revocation "unprecedented."

"The board's decision in this case will reflect on the integrity of EPA as an institution and its respect for basic notions of fairness and due process," wrote Jeffrey Holmstead, lawyer for Desert Rock.

The Desert Rock Energy Project is run by the Navajo Nation and New York-based Sithe Global. It would put a coal power plant on Navajo land near Shiprock, the same region as the existing Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generating Station. By some measures, the two existing plants are some of the nation's dirtiest.

Ritter and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson took their opposition to the plant to President Barack Obama's new EPA chief, Lisa Jackson, in a letter earlier this year. This week, Ritter restated his case to Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

"She said she understood our concerns about that, and that they were actually looking at it and looking at it with a fresh set of eyes," Ritter said Tuesday.

Ritter and Sutley were in Utah for a meeting of Western governors. He invited Sutley to visit the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation and see the region's air-quality problems for herself.

State Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, has tried to get Interior Secretary Ken Salazar involved in the power plant. Ritter said Tuesday that the EPA process is working well and Salazar probably does not need to be involved. Salazar's department includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, but the EPA - the prime federal agency in this case - does not report to Salazar.

The EPA issued the air-pollution permit July 31, 2008 - one day before a deadline it negotiated with Desert Rock in a lawsuit the power plant owners brought against the EPA for taking too long with the permit. But on April 27, the EPA asked the Environmental Appeals Board to overturn the permit.

Desert Rock lawyers say Jackson, the new EPA administrator, is taking an active role in steering the EPA away from approval of the plant. Ritter also said Obama's administration "has responded in a positive way" to concerns raised by plant opponents.

Developers said the permit denial would hurt the Navajo Nation.

"At immediate stake are the millions of dollars already invested in the Desert Rock Project, hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs for the Navajos, and a reliable source of energy for an area of the country that desperately needs it," Holmstead wrote.

Environmental groups argued to the appeals board that Desert Rock's lawsuit forced the permit to be issued before it was complete. The EPA should be allowed to take back the permit because it has new information and new policies, the environmental groups said in a brief supporting the EPA's move.

jhanel@durangoherald.com

Click: here for Source Article

http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/06/17/Desert_Rock_protests_refusal_of_air_permit/

DENVER Gov. Bill Ritter says Colorado is on the right path to develop its energy economy.

Ritter said Tuesday he and other Western governors agree that job creation, energy issues, wildlife protection and climate change are related and that the states need to work together.

"Colorado is on the right path, the path of protecting our natural resources," Ritter said by phone from Park City, Utah, where a three-day meeting of the Western Governors' Association is wrapping up.

"It really ensures we have health and safe and clean communities," he said.

Ritter said one big issue still unresolved is the placement of transmission lines to get renewable energy from solar and wind farms to consumers.

In a report released Monday, the Western Governors' Association, which represents 19 Western states and American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, identified 54 "energy hubs," areas with renewable energy potential across the Western U.S. and Canada.

Delivering the kinds of power loads those areas might generate will require an upgrade in the existing transmission system and the likely need for creating new transmission corridors, while protecting the environment.

The Obama administration and Western governors signed a signed a memorandum of understanding to protect important wildlife habitat in the West during energy development.

Ritter said he also expressed support to the Environmental Protection Agency for its attempts to get an appeals board to allow the agency to reconsider an air permit issued last year for a planned coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico.

Regional EPA officials want to reconsider the parts of the permit for the $3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project that were appealed by the state of New Mexico and environmentalists.

The appeal cited concerns about air quality, carbon dioxide emissions and violations of the Endangered Species Act.

Ritter said pollution from the plant threatens air quality in the Four Corners region and should be reviewed.

Source Article Link: http://www.wkrg.com/associated_press/article/governor-colo.-on-right-path-for-energy-economy/104627/

June 12, 2009
Navajo Times

I, for one, say to our elected leaders, "steadfast and full steam ahead" on the issue of Desert Rock.

I applaud Navajo's leadership for this opportunity to place the Navajo Nation on the map on the issue of being the first in line for creating a "green economy" among the coal industry.

Thank you for recognizing that this issue is a national issue and then recognizing that it'll take immense political fortitude and capital investment as a nation to withstand the odds stacked against the Navajo people on this issue.

Personally, in the early years of my life, I as have many other Navajo families lived with the uncertainty of income. As most Navajo leadership know, a Navajo household without income is the most debilitating experience anyone can experience. Such situations are wrought with poverty, minimal education levels and poor health.

I am certain as community leaders your community members' uncertain economic prospects weigh heavily into everything you do. As well, you as I have come to know when reflecting upon our upbringing what life as a young Navajo was like growing up with economic uncertainty. So you challenge yourself to do all you can for them.

So I say to the outside and suddenly turned environment-friendly activist, "how dare you" propose to deny the Navajo people and a sovereign Indian nation their right to advance their plans to secure their economic and generational future.

You say what you say now that you have denigrated the earth's resources for your own riches, used the riches from the earth's resources to attain the most prestigious schools and universities, employed with companies investing in your retirement income and have investments established for your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

You have also used tax revenues and other income derived from fossil fuel to benefit your public schools, public infrastructure, service industry, research and development and all other electrical, water and sewage infrastructure.

Disparities in mortality, crime, education attainment, tax revenues, job opportunities, technological advancement, market outlets and public conveniences between your communities and Indian communities are telltale that you've benefited and used the earth to your own benefit.

And now you say you have something purposeful to say against the very norms yourself and your fathers have benefited from? So now you sit besides your oceanfront property, your summer mountain resort or your retirement condominium and voice regret for your father's indulgence by telling others the wrong of other people's ways long after you've secured riches several generations beyond your "divine" revelation for environmentalism?

Who's to say that your environmentalism agenda is propagated by others in industry - government and/or private - preventing a sovereign Indian nation its due ability to advance its people?

Nothing is surprising to the Indian people where in their history no other group of people have more laws passed unto them than any other race which, all in all, conveys that we will be ever suspicious that "outside" people have motives that benefit only their own self-interest.

Maybe you ought to direct your effort toward educating and investing in your own communities where tons of waste of plastics, wood and fossil fuel are suffocating your rivers, streams and backyards.

Maybe you ought to concentrate your efforts on fast-food establishments where they feed artery-clogging menus, which then end up as costs in the medical industry. Maybe you ought to advocate for those communities to stop their growth so that Indian lands don't have to be used to subsidize their prosperity.

I'm sure even if you advocate for curtailing these market vices you can still manage to make some monetary gain somewhere else in the market but not here on Navajo and certainly not now.

Raymond Nopah
Gallup, N.M.

June 12, 2009
Robin Bravender, E&E reporter

Developers of a controversial New Mexico coal-fired power project have asked U.S. EPA's Environmental Appeals Board to deny the agency's request to reconsider the plant's air permits.

EPA asked the board in April to send air permits issued last July back to the agency to allow it to reconsider several issues, including soot emissions, possible effects on endangered species and concerns about pollution-control technologies (Greenwire, April 28).

But in a brief filed yesterday, attorneys for the Desert Rock Energy Facility urged the board to deny the remand motion, arguing that EPA's request is unprecedented and illegal.

Among other claims, the developers argue that a remand would violate Clean Air Act requirements that the air permit be approved or denied no later than one year after the date of filing a completed application. EPA's Region 9 office in San Francisco determined that Desert Rock's application was complete more than five years ago.

"Apparently, the new administrator's policy preferences override the laws enacted by Congress -- or perhaps simply cause at least one of them to disappear," the brief says.

EPA's bid to reconsider the permits was widely viewed as a signal that new coal-fired power plants will likely face stiff opposition from the Obama administration.

"It's pretty clear from a number of things that they're closely allied with the environmental community on a number of these issues and are very uncomfortable with the idea of any new coal-fired power plants," said Jeff Holmstead, an attorney representing the Desert Rock developers who served as EPA's air chief during the Bush administration.

Environmentalists viewed the request as an opportunity for EPA to address legal and scientific concerns they contend were overlooked by the previous administration.

The facility -- a joint venture of Sithe Global Power LLC and the Navajo Nation -- would become the area's third power plant, joining the 2,040-megawatt Four Corners plant and the 1,800-megawatt San Juan Generating Station. Critics warn that the plant could emit hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases over its lifespan, as well as pollutants that are already regulated under the Clean Air Act.

"Universally, the people who are really harmed here are the Indian tribes," Holmstead said. Because the plant would be located on tribal land, EPA has permitting authority over the project.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. expressed disappointment last month that EPA's request could further stall development plans. Developers estimate that the plant would bring in more than $50 million annually for the Navajo Nation. When Shirley met earlier this week with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, they likely discussed the status of the Desert Rock permits.

"We certainly hope that the EPA sees this as more than just a climate change, global warming issue and recognizes it as something to provide desperately needed jobs on the Navajo Nation," George Hardeen, a spokesman for Shirley's office, said earlier this week.

Holmstead said he was "pretty confident" that the appeals board would keep the permits in place, based on what he characterized as EPA's shaky legal argument. Administrator Jackson "just wants to start the permitting process over again," he said. "I think it's pretty clear that that's illegal."

By James Monteleone
Farmington Daily Times

June 11, 2009

FRUITLAND — Equipment failures at the Four Corners Power Plant on Tuesday caused the release of an undetermined amount of black ash from the site, a power plant spokesman confirmed.

Particulate ash composed of pulverized coal clouded the air surrounding the Fruitland power plant Tuesday morning after equipment designed to retain the coal unexpectedly shut down, spokesman Nathan Tohtsoni said.

"It's pretty much ground up to a fine powder. When it's released like that, it just shoots out," Tohtsoni said of the ash emission. "It's a very temporary situation and it's quickly resolved."

It was not clear how much coal ash was released into the air, he said.

The 2,000-megawatt coal-fired power plant operated by the Arizona Public Service Company reports its emissions and pollution levels to the federal Environmental Protection Agency office in San Francisco four times each year.

"Everything that comes out of that (smokestack) is monitored, and we do a report to the EPA," the power plant spokesman said.

The particulate ash was emitted from one of the plant's five units. The production unit was taken out of service following the unexpected coal ash emission, Tohtsoni said.

However, it's unclear which of two outages caused the ash plume. Related equipment failures were reported at 5:30 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. Tuesday.

Tohtsoni could not confirm how often similar equipment failures cause excess ash to be released into the surrounding air.

Mike Eisenfeld, of the San Juan Citizen's Alliance, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, said the pollution is an indication that the equipment utilized at the APS power plant is out of date and requires renovation.

"It's a release that usually should have been controlled," Eisenfeld said. "It's another indication that this sort of facility should be updated with more viable technology."

The power plant unit where the outage occurred has operated since the 1960s, and technology updates since then were limited, Eisenfeld claimed.

"These are sort of indicators of a coal plant that's had better days," he said of the ash.

Environmental scientists at the power plant are investigating the coal ash emission, Tohtsoni said.

James Monteleone:

jmonteleone@daily-times.com

The Durango Herald
Friday, May 15, 2009

Opinion
Letters to the editor

This letter is in response to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley’s State of the Navajo Nation speech regarding the EPA’s decision to review the environmental assessment for the proposed Desert Rock power plant.

It is embarrassing that he asked “How many of my people have to die before the U.S. government responds to help…This is about sovereignty.”

People, both native and non-native, who stand to profit from this misguided project, are so desperate that they can no longer form a coherent argument.

Shirley goes on to say, “I want to know that Navajos can live within their reservation 20, 50, 100 years from now, and Desert Rock is the key to ensure that happening.” Has Shirley forgotten that Navajos have held on to their land and multiplied in spite of the poison from two existing power plants in the area for hundreds of years?

Does Shirley really believe that Desert Rock is going to end poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and gangs? The answer to these problems lies with adherence to the fundamental laws that teach respect for man and Earth.

Shirley is trying to arrange a meeting with President Obama. I hope Obama has the wisdom to realize Shirley does not represent the grass-roots Diné any more than George Bush represented Americans during the end of his term.

My extended family, shoes lives are most affected by this project, and all those who will suffer ailments from the mercury, sulfur and fly ash have been fighting against this project for more than three years. We have no representation in tribal government above the chapter level as Shirley and his henchmen are unbending in their determination to ram this plant down our throats.

Who speaks for the unborn children who will inherit this decision, this abused land, the poisoned air, and the mercury-laden fish? Not Joe Shirley.

He speaks for Sithe Global which has come in to our country with this short-sighted plan.

The Iroquois say “consider the impact of your decisions on the next seven generations.” Listen to our Iroquois brothers.

Thomas F. Johnston
Redmesa

Navajo Times Thursday, May 14, 2009
Letter to Editors

We see that President Shirley chose to cry about his power plant rather than take care of the council raid on the reserves.

The latest is about Shirley asking the regional director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "How many more people of mine are going to die before the U.S. government responds to help?"

We have the same question.

We have information, from the EPA and other sources, that Navajos living in the Shiprock area are many times more likely to need medical treatment for respiratory ailments caused by pollution from existing power plants.

Given that prior administrations (including a Democratic one) refused to take positive action to deal with greenhouse gases, we do not know the extent to which gases such as carbon dioxide from the existing power plants are harming Navajos.

The overly friendly environmental impact statement on Desert Rock from the URS Corp. said our breathing wouldn't be impacted by the proposed plant. The EPA said otherwise. That is a good reason to pull the air permit and take a fresh look at it.

Our recent communication to regional administrator Laura Yoshi noted the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals action in upholding existing limitations on emissions from the Four Corners plant and our letter asked that Dooda Desert Rock be at the table when future emission limits, including those on greenhouse gases, are set for that plant.

We also noted that the state of New Mexico took positive action to protect the health of Navajos by going after the San Juan Generating Station for air quality violations and the state got a $6.9 million fine settlement.

Some of the money will go to improving environmental conditions in the area, including the Navajo Nation.

Surely Mr. Shirley will also object to that intrusion on Navajo Nation sovereignty. The nation can find resources to file friend-of-the-court briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court, but it doesn't seem to have time to support efforts such as going after area power plants for pollution.

How many more Navajos are going to be ill or die of respiratory ailments before President Shirley recognizes that another power plant will also kill?

Elouise Brown
Chaco Rio, N.M.

Printed from ABQjournal.com, a service of the Albuquerque Journal
URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/upfront/142241586044upfront05-14-09.htm

Thursday, May 14, 2009
Navajo Returns Home To Fight Power Plant
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer

BURNHAM — If you drive through here on the road that connects Gallup and Shiprock, you'll see stretches of tawny dirt and a whole lot of empty.

It's the place a Houston-based power company decided would be perfect for a huge, twin-tower 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant. The company called it Desert Rock, a name that embodies desolation.

But if you're from here, you don't see empty. You see the place where your grandparents made their sheep camp and where you ran around as a boy and where all your relatives still live. You don't call it Desert Rock. You call it by a name that translates from Navajo as "water for the rams."

"It's not this desolate, uninhabited area. We've been out here for years," Dailan Long says.

"It was invasion of a territory that had meaning for our people but was meaningless for other people," Long says of the choice of Burnham for the project, which would take millions of tons of locally mined coal and yield $50 million in royalty payments and taxes to the Navajo Nation government, which is a partner.

The fight over the proposed Desert Rock plant has turned into an epic battle that has come to involve state, federal and tribal governments and a whole lot of lawyers.

It has also come to involve Long, who was on a path to medical school a few thousand miles away when he heard about Desert Rock and felt a stab at his heart that brought him home.

Long and I are having coffee on a stormy Saturday at the convenience store, the only place there is to meet in the vicinity of Burnham, which its about 30 miles south of Farmington, 12 miles off the main road.

He's explaining that he found out about Desert Rock purely by accident when he was looking for a topic for a research paper for an environmental justice class in his sophomore year at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

He called home and asked, "Is there a power plant going in there?"

No one had heard of Desert Rock. "We had no idea what was going on, completely out of the loop," he says.

That changed quickly. His Grandma Lucy and Grandma Sarah got busy organizing against the plant, forming a group whose name in the Navajo language means "No Desert Rock." They encouraged Long to pitch in.

Long switched his major from pre-med to Native American studies and, while he pursued his degree back East, he used the phone and e-mail to help their resistance efforts and to work with a long-standing Navajo environmental group, Diné CARE. Other Dartmouth students lazed at home or on tropical beaches during Christmas break, but Long came home and camped out as part of a community blockade of the road into the proposed power plant site.

Long wasn't an instant critic of the plant. He was raised in a family that was supported by power plant jobs (two other power plants sit within a few miles of the proposed plant and feed many a Navajo family). But as he studied the potential effects, he became convinced the plant would be bad for air and water in the region and an assault on the land where his mother's family has lived for generations.

"I realized that Desert Rock was a case study of energy production at the expense of unknowledgeable people," he says.

A coalition of groups opposing the project has managed to delay rights of way for the transmission lines that would carry the power to homes in Arizona and Nevada. And the Environmental Protection Agency handed the groups a big victory a few weeks ago when it asked to review the air quality permit it had issued for the plant.

Long has organized community meetings, appeared at rallies and public hearings and on radio shows and written critiques of the project.

He also took part in an alternative-energy study, which concluded that the Navajo Nation could benefit from wind and solar power. These days, he's going from one chapter house to another, explaining the study and asking communities to throw their support behind alternative energy.

After he graduated in 2007, Long moved home with his parents and siblings and returned to the life he knew as a kid, herding sheep, hauling water and wood — a world away from the Ivy League. Unlike some of his Dartmouth friends who have gone to jobs in hedge funds and to medical school and law school, Long is enjoying the peace and quiet of reservation life.

"When my friends are traveling to Paris and they say, 'You should come meet us there,' I'm like, 'I can barely get home on my gas tank.' "

Even though he is studying for the MCAT exams and plans to apply to medical schools, Long says he'll stay committed to the Desert Rock issue until it is resolved.

"I feel that the community has called me to be here and has entrusted me to do this work," he says.

UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column. You can reach Leslie at 823-3914 or llinthicum@abqjournal.com.

AzJournal.com
Holbrook Tribune-News ~ Silver Creek Herald ~ Horizon Travel Guide

May 13th, 2009
By Tammy Gray-Searles

Navajo Nation representatives are still fighting for the construction of a $4 billion coal-fired power plant on the reservation in New Mexico near Four Corners following the withdrawal of a required air permit by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

It appeared the plant, which has been on the drawing board for 25 years, according to a press release issued by the Navajo Nation, would finally be moving forward following a Navajo Nation Council meeting that approved the necessary right-of-way permit for the transmission lines. In late April, however, the EPA reversed its approval of a required air quality permit, noting that the permit was “issued prematurely” and that additional studies and information must be gathered before the permit can be approved.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. criticized the decision, saying that it held the Navajo Nation back from economic development, and was another example of the federal government failing to abide by its own regulations. According to a press release issued from Shirley’s office, the EPA had agreed to issue a final ruling on the permit by July 31, 2008, as part of a court settlement agreement. The EPA did issue the permit in July 2008, but later retracted it.

Shirley has requested a meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the issue.

“Fair and equal treatment on our Desert Rock project is the place to start,” Shirley said. “This isn’t just about energy. This is about sovereignty. This is about saving self. This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems. I have people dying every day because of poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, gangs, and the U.S. Government is not there to adequately fund the direct service programs that cater to these needs.”

The press release from Shirley's office noted, “The president (Shirley) said a project like Desert Rock, which will bring more than $50 million annually to the Nation, is the Navajo Nation’s best hope to break the cycle of dependency on the federal government.”

Shirley also noted that, in his opinion, the air permit should have been issued four or five years ago.

If constructed, the Desert Rock Project is expected to generate a total of $2.5 billion in revenue for the Navajo Nation over the next 50 years at a rate of about $50 million per year. Those numbers include an anticipated $20 million in tax, $18 million in coal royalties, $8 million in coal taxes and $4.5 million in water rights annually.

In addition, about 400 new jobs will be created, with about 200 full-time employees at the plant and 200 more in coal mining operations. During construction, which is expected to take four years, another 1,500 jobs will be created. Salaries at the plant are expected to average $60,000 per year.

Prior to withdrawal of the air permit, construction on the plant was expected to begin this fall.

The project is a collaboration between Sithe Global Power and the Diné Power Authority. According to Sithe Global, the plant will produce 1,500 megawatts of energy, while still being expected to “have the lowest emissions rate of any coal-fired power plant in the U.S.”

Farmington among cleanest cities

Gallup Independent Weekend May 2-3, 2009
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — This week the American Lung Association released its 10th annual State of the Air report which looks at ozone and particle pollution found in monitoring sites across the United States for 2005-2007.

Among the findings, based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Farmington and Santa Fe-Espanola were ranked among the cleanest cities in the United States for short- and long- term particle pollution, while San Juan County received an “F” for 24 days of ozone levels ranked “unhealthy for sensitive populations.”

Air pollution continues to threaten the lives and health of millions of people in the United States despite great progress since the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, according to the association. In March 2008, EPA adopted a new, tighter standard for ozone pollution. Measured against the new standard, the air quality in many new places failed to meet the test.

Evaluating the most recent data against the new standard, the American Lung Association found that approximately 175.4 million Americans live in counties where ozone monitors recorded too many days with unhealthy ozone levels, far more than the 92.5 million identified in the State of the Air 2008 report.

Six out of 10 people, or 61.7 percent, live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution. Almost 186.1 million Americans live in 525 counties where they are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution in the form of either ozone or short- term or year-round levels of particles.

Approximately 4 million children and 10.9 million adults with asthma live in parts of the United States with very high levels of ozone. Coal-fired power plants are among the largest contributors to ozone, particulate pollution, mercury, and global warming, according to the association, which has taken legal action repeatedly to fight to require power plants to clean up.

It recommends EPA take action immediately to reduce emissions and expand clean-up requirements for power plants nationwide, clean up the existing fleet of dirty diesel vehicles and ocean-going vessels, and strengthen the 2008 ozone standards and national standards for particle pollution.

Sarah Jane White has been battling asthma for years, which is one reason why she became involved with grassroots groups challenging the proposed Desert Rock power plant, a 1,500 megawatt coal- fired facility which would be located near Four Corners Power Plant and San Juan Generating Facility.

A recent scare reaffirmed White’s belief that existing power plants in the Shiprock area are contributing to the breathing problems of area residents.

White’s granddaughter, who is almost 4 years old, lives in Kirtland near the power plants. Recently the granddaughter, while spending the night at White’s home, located on a dirt road about 7 miles from the Little Water Store, had her first asthma attack. Because White recognized the signs and was able to get the child to where she could receive medical attention, she averted a near- tragedy.

“She never had a breathing problem that I know of. I’ve never seen her gasp for air,” White said Wednesday. But sometime around 2 a.m., April 20, White awoke, thinking that the child was snoring. “She never snores. It was coming from her chest.

“I got her up and she started throwing up and coughing. I’m an asthmatic, and I know when a life is in trouble from my experience. I just grabbed her and put her in the car and drove. She was gasping for air she could barely breathe. I called 911 about a couple miles from my house before I got to the highway. All the time, the 911 (dispatcher) from the Shiprock Police Department, she stayed with me.

“I drove her more than halfway — by Table Mesa, about 15 miles south of Shiprock. That’s where the ambulance met us. That was the most scary experience I have had,” White said.

The child’s lungs had collapsed, White was told. “They took her into the trauma room. They almost flew her out to Albuquerque, but the doctor said they were able to open up her lungs. Another 30 to 40 minutes, she would have been gone. She stayed in the hospital a couple of days on breathing treatments, similar to the asthma medication I’m on.

“It really scared me. I have my experience of that kind of breathing problem, but never have I experienced another person gasping for air like that, especially a little child that doesn’t even know what’s going on,” she said. “This can happen to any child.”

White said asthma does not run in the family. “I have never seen my father, my mother or my older brothers or my grandmother gasping for air. Never seen that. I born and raised my children in Shiprock. My son got asthma when he was like 3 or 4 years old and he still has asthma. Two of my granddaughters have asthma, my daughter-in-law carries an inhaler around. It’s not funny. It’s not funny at all. And they’re all in Kirtland and Shiprock,” she said.

“I blame the power plants. The San Juan Basin is all covered with gray smog. I see it from where, I live, and 1 say, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s what I lived in all those years, and they are my kids and they’re having breathing problems.

Future uncertain for Desert Rock Power Plant’s air quality permit

By Marley Shebala
Navajo Times

WINDOW ROCK, May 1, 2009

The developer for the planned $3 billion coal-fired Desert Rock power plant remains "optimistic" despite the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to withdraw the plant's air quality permit for further review.

"As developers, we're eternally optimistic," Nathan Plagens, vice president of Desert Rock Energy Co., said Wednesday. "I feel what's been done is totally defensible. Unfortunately, it's in the hands of a court of law."

On April 27, when the Navajo Nation government closed its doors to celebrate Sovereignty Day, the U.S. EPA asked the Environmental Appeals Board to allow it to reconsider portions of the air permit that were appealed to the board after the permit was issued on July 31, 2008.

Darrin Swartz-Larson, EPA public information officer, added in an April 27 press release that in January, the EPA withdrew the portion of the permit decision regarding emission limits and controls for emissions of carbon dioxide to seek further comment on the matter.

"The board will consider the motion filed today and issue an order to grant or deny it," Swartz-Larson stated. "If the motion is granted, the permit will be sent back to the EPA's Pacific Southwest office for further analysis."

Plagens said his company notified the appeals board on April 28 that it would respond to the EPA motion by May 13, the deadline.

According to an April 28 letter from Desert Rock attorney Jeffrey R. Holmstead, of Bracewell & Giuliani in Washington, D.C., "Desert Rock may seek discovery regarding EPA's actions in this case and its communications with parties that are opposing the permit at issue in this proceeding. As noted in EPA Region 9's motion, an important consideration in a case such as this one is whether there are 'unusual circumstances verging on bad faith.'"

Plagens noted, "For the most part, we defer to President Shirley's comment and statement on this action."

Shirley, in a press release issued April 27, expressed "great disappointment" with EPA's action.

It doesn't represent "true consultation" with the tribe or the change he had hoped for from President Obama's administration, he noted.


Shirley stated that he's been asking for a meeting with Obama and that EPA's decision has made that request more urgent.

"On the campaign trail, President Obama acknowledged the federal government has not always been honest and truthful in its dealings with Native America,” he said, “and frankly, I am feeling that sentiment today.

"This isn't just about energy," Shirley stated. "This is about sovereignty. This is about saving self. This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems. I have people dying every day because of poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence, gangs, and the U.S. government is not there to adequately fund the direct service programs that cater to these needs."

He added that Desert Rock would bring more than $50 million annually to the tribe.

Resources Committee Chairman George Arthur (Nenahnezad/San Juan/T'iistsoh Sikaad) said Tuesday that the EPA decision "was obviously a decision primarily based on public pressure."

Dailan Long of Burnham, N.M., where Desert Rock would be located, said April 29 that EPA was right in asking for more time to reconsider the air permit.

Long, a member of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment, added that the permit was issued under the Bush administration and Bush cared more about polluters than the health of people.

"We commend EPA for its decision and we hope the council is able to understand the complexity of coal development," he said. "It is not the time to be building a power plant. There are national and global climate issues involved."

New Mexico Attorney General Gary K. King also applauded EPA's decision in an April 27 press release.

King stated that the health and environment of New Mexico are the beneficiaries of the EPA's decision.

"The EPA is exercising its authority to correct the permit's deficiencies that we identified in our appeal," King noted. "The action today ensures that all New Mexicans receive the full protections of the law."

DINE CARE, SAN JUAN CITIZENS ALLIANCE, EARTHJUSTICE, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, CLEAN AIR TASK FORCE, NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION, AND SIERRA CLUB

Contacts: Lori Goodman, Diné CARE, 970-259-0199
Mike Eisenfeld, San Juan Citizens Alliance, 505-360-8994
Nicholas Persampieri, Attorney Earthjustice, 303-996-9617
Patrice Simms, Senior Attorney, NRDC, 202-289-2437
Andrea Keller Helsel, NPCA, 202-454-3332

EPA Seeks To Remand Permit for Desert Rock Coal Plant
Advocates: ‘It’s A Good Day for the 4 Corners’

Washington, DC—In a positive move for the health and environment of the entire Four Corners region, the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking to retract the permit for the proposed Desert Rock 1500 MW coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

The remand request came after a coalition of environmental, conservation and Navajo groups petitioned the EPA on grounds that the permit was inadequate to protect health and the environment.

The plant would impose a massive industrial complex on the landscape, douse the region with air pollutants, strain critical water resources, and release some 650 million tons of greenhouse gases over its 50-year operational life. Although some leaders of the Navajo Nation endorsed the plant, Navajo citizens, including the group Diné CARE, represented by Earthjustice, have been actively opposed to Desert Rock because it represents another 50 years of dirty coal that has plagued the reservation since the 1960s.

“We are hopeful that the Navajo Tribal Council will finally start to understand that another dirty coal plant is the last thing needed for the long term benefit of our land and our people,” said Lori Goodman of Diné CARE. “We are fortunate to live in a place that is rich in clean renewable energy resources. That is where we need to go.”

“We’re obviously quite happy with this decision,” said Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizen’s Alliance. “We have been working very hard for four years to alert our partners and local decision makers about the inadequacies and failures of the Desert Rock permit. This is simply another sign that this ill-begotten coal burner is not viable in today’s environment and under the new administration, and we hope that Sithe Global will finally realize that if they want to continue in the energy business, there are cleaner alternatives out there.”

“EPA Region 9 now agrees with what those opposed to Desert Rock have been saying for years,” said Nicholas Persampieri, attorney for Earthjustice. “Analysis of the plant’s adverse impacts, including the impacts of its mercury and fine particulate emissions, sufficient to ensure protection of human health and the environment has not been conducted.”

“We are encouraged by the policy developments signaled in EPA’s motion,” said Ann Weeks, attorney for Clean Air Task Force, and of counsel to several of the petitioning groups. “Clean Air Act permit reviews must include comprehensive evaluation of the technologies that could reduce the full range of coal pollutants linked to premature death and disease including greenhouse gases, air toxics, solid waste and other air and water pollution. The record in this case clearly demonstrates that evaluating all electricity generating technology approaches at this site is warranted.”

The Navajo Reservation is already home to the 2,100 megawatt Four Corners coal plant. The 1,800 MW San Juan Generating Station is just 15 miles away. These plants are considered two of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the nation and have had dramatic impacts to the reservation and the entire four corners region in terms of particulates, sulfur dioxide and mercury pollution.

“Fortunately for the communities, lands, including 27 national parks, and other resources in the region, EPA’s request signals hope for better air quality protections and the potential to replace dirty coal power with clean, renewable energy solutions,” said Karen Hevel-Mingo, National Parks Conservation Association Southwest Program Manager.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

By Kathy Helms Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

WINDOW ROCK — While proponents of the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant were frustrated Monday with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s motion for voluntary remand of the facility’s air quality permit, members of several grassroots and environmental groups celebrated the decision.

“This is great news for the grassroots community members of Burnham Chapter,” said Anna Frazier of Dine CARE. “It’s a call for celebration, but we also have to be cautious as we don’t know what the response will be from Region 9 and the company.”

On Tuesday, Jeff Holmstead, a partner with Bracewell & Giuliani, which represents Desert Rock Energy Co., notified EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board of its intent to respond to Region 9’s motion for voluntary remand of the air permit. The company also may seek discovery regarding actions in the case and EPA’s communications with parties opposing the permit.

Holmstead said an important consideration in a case such as this one is whether there are “unusual circumstances verging on bad faith. ... We have reason to believe that such circumstances ay exist in this case.”

He said Desert Rock intends to file a motion directing EPA to retain all documents, electronic records, ‘telephone logs, calendar entries and notes that relate in any way to EPA’s decision to seek a voluntary remand of the permit.

Lori Goodman and Dáilan J. Long of Dine CARE said they believe EPA is making a move in the right direction.

“We are happy that the current administration is using science-based decisions. The health impacts that were ignored will now have their chance to be included,” said Goodman. “We’re in a new era where global warming and climate change is fact, and there is no place for the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant.”

The Navajo Nation has world-class solar potential and that investment in renewable energy is the way to go, she said.

Long said the Desert Rock air permit should not have been issued to begin with. “We have all the science to show that Desert Rock should be abandoned and U.S. EPA is taking the first step in that direction.”

Elouise Brown, president of Dooda (No) Desert Rock, one of the more vocal opponents of the power plant, said EPA’s remand request “is a positive step forward. We know it’s not a done deal yet, but I feel that we’re finally being listened to— those of us who haven’t been listened to for many years. We’re looking out for the health of the people and the environment. Health issues are our number one concern.”

Mike Eisenfeld of San Juan Citizens Alliance said his group believes EPA has made an important decision to legitimately analyze the project for its real impacts.

“We’ve said all along that there are too many adverse impacts associated with Desert Rock that have never been properly analyzed. We are encouraged that the EPA has taken their oversight responsibilities to a higher level in giving the scrutiny that a proposal to site a third coal-fired power plant in a 15- mile radius deserves.

“We believe that Desert Rock is not viable and should be immediately replaced by renewable energy opportunities that would cost less, create more jobs, create economic strength for the Navajo Nation/Four Corners region, and be permittable,” he said.

Sierra Club also praised the request for review. “We continue to work with Navajo partners on a better strategy for a greener economy with green jobs in wind and solar projects instead of increasingly risky investments in bad coal projects like Desert Rock that will not only harm Navajo communities but also make global warming worse for everyone,” said Andy Bessler of Sierra in Flagstaff.

Dine CARE issued a press release Tuesday stating that their intervention in the appeal “was
in emergency response to the current industrial genocide of tens of thousands of Navajo people in the Four Corners area who are now sick and dying from decades of exposure to deadly air pollution emitted from the existing Four Corners and San Juan power plants.”

If Desert Rock is permitted and built, they said, “it will create a triangle of death in the San Juan Basin.”

The group took issue with a statement made by Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr, claiming, “Every day this project is delayed, we are losing our Navajo children to poverty and alcoholism because of lack of opportunity.”

A 2005 Navajo Division of Health report rates Causes of death on Navajo as: auto accidents, cervical cancel; suicides, tuberculosis, pneumonia/influenza, infant deaths and post neonatal deaths, they said. “To claim that poverty is causing death in Navajo is unbelievable and disgraceful. The Navajo people are resourceful and our traditional kinship Ké would not allow poverty to take our people.”

Lucy Willie, an elderly Burnham resident and resister, said, “We know and live the reality of living under a cloud of pollution and what it does to our land, livestock and our health, and we applaud the decision made under this new administration.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Contacts:
Anna M. Frazier (928) 380-7697
E-mail: frazierann1@hotmail.com

Lori Goodman (970) 259-0199
E-mail: kiyaani@frontier.net

POWER PLANT PROJECT ON THE ROPES

April 28, 2009, Dilkon, AZ--The proposed Desert Rock Energy Project was dealt a serious if not fatal blow yesterday as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency withdrew the previously issued but defective air quality permit for the planned $4 billion power plant and remanded it to its Region Nine office to correct its earlier flawed review and analysis of Sithe Global Power, LLC's permit application which itself is administratively incomplete and fraught with technical error.

The EPA Administrator filed the motion for complete permit withdrawal and remand with the agency's Environmental Appeals Board which has been considering an administrative appeal filed by the Conservation Petitioners (including Dine CARE) and other parties last year challenging EPA's July 31, 2008 decision to illegally permit the proposed Desert Rock power plant.

Dine CARE's intervention and participation in the controversial air quality permit decision appeal matter was in emergency response to the current industrial genocide of tens of thousands of Navajo people in the Four Corners area who are now sick and dying from decades of exposure to deadly air pollution emitted from the existing Four Corners and San Juan power plants and to prevent the future technological mass murder of more of our people by killer smog from more power plants and death factories like Desert Rock which if permitted and built, will create a triangle of death in the San Juan Basin.

Our Navajo leaders believing in “pie in the sky” CLEAN COAL technology that doesn’t exist and their misguided response crying poverty is missing the whole point of why Desert Rock can’t be built.

Navajo President Joe Shirley released a statement yesterday on this same issue “Every day this project is delayed, we are losing our Navajo children to poverty and alcoholism because of lack of opportunity,” President Shirley said. 2005 Navajo Division of Health report rates causes of death on Navajo as: Auto accidents, cervical cancer, suicides, tuberculosis, pneumonia/influenza, infant deaths and post neonatal deaths. To claim that poverty is causing death in Navajo is unbelievable and disgraceful. The Navajo people are resourceful and our traditional kinship Ké would not allow poverty to take our people.

Joe Shirley and the Navajo Tribal Council are only exacerbating the public health crisis in Navajoland by supporting and voting for more deadly pollution while overpaid white mouthpieces like George Hardeen publicly justify and condone the Navajo holocaust and the ecocide of our sacred environment. But their days are numbered as the wheels of environmental justice slowly turn.

Burnham resident and resister Lucy Willie said at press time, "We know and live the reality of living under a cloud of pollution and what it does to our land, livestock and our health and we applaud the decision made under this new administration.”

Contact:

Anna M. Frazier, Dine’ CARE
Dilkon (Navajo Nation), AZ
928-380-7697

Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency filed a motion Monday with its Environmental Appeals Board for a voluntary remand of the air permit issued last July for the Desert Rock Energy Facility.

In January, EPA withdrew a portion of the permit decision regarding emission limits and controls for emissions of carbon dioxide to seek further comment on the matter.

Monday’s action addresses other issues still under appeal with the board, which will consider the motion filed Monday and issue an order to grant or deny it. If granted, the permit will be sent back to EPA’s Pacific Southwest office for further analysis.

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. said he was disappointed to learn of the EPA’s decision after it was made, and doesn’t consider that true consultation with the Navajo Nation or the change he had hoped for from the Obama Administration.

“I’m just hurt in many ways as leader of this big nation,” Shirley told U.S. EPA Region 9 Acting Regional Administrator Laura Yoshi in a teleconference Monday.

“We’re just not getting the cooperation we’re needing to move this project along.”

Shirley has requested a meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss the Navajo Nation’s need for the Desert Rock project but said Monday’s decision has made that request more urgent. “Because of today’s action, I am asking for a meeting with President Obama sooner rather than later,” he said.

Obama indicated his White House policy would create a new relationship with Native people that is based on dignity and respect.

“Fair and equal treatment on our Desert Rock project is the place to start,” Shirley said. “This isn’t just about energy.

This is about sovereignty. This is about saving self. This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems.”

Shirley said a project like Desert Rock, which will bring more than $50 million annually to the Nation, is the Navajo Nation’s best hope to break the cycle of dependency on the federal government.

Steven Begay, general manager of Diné Power Authority, co-developer of the 1,500 megawatt coal-fired plant along with Sithe Global Power of Houston, said EPA is “trying to change the rules in the middle of the stream and they’re forgetting to help us with our health, welfare and economy.

The rules are more important than maybe the lives of people out here and the progress of our Nation and our society.”

The Nation is losing revenue with every delay the federal government makes, Begay said. “Even though their concerns may be important, it’s holding up the whole tribal economy. There should be some way to move forward under the existing rules without getting caught up in the midst of proposed stuff.

“We worked under the existing rules, and the existing rules aren’t working for us right now. There has got to be some fairness to it, to help projects like ours and to bring in revenue and jobs so that we can take care of some of the social ills.”

Nathan Plagens of Desert Rock Energy Co., a Sithe subsidiary, said the official word from Desert Rock is “no comment.”

The federal agency is seeking to ensure that environmental considerations surrounding the proposal to build the Desert Rock power plant are consistent with the law and protective of human health and the environment, according to a statement from EPA headquarters in Washington.

“EPA is asking the board to remand the permit for this facility, thereby allowing the agency to reconsider clean-air technology controls for pollutants such as particulate matter.

If the board grants the agency’s request, the permit will be sent back to the EPA’s Pacific Southwest office for further analysis and public comment.”

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson applauded the move. “I am encouraged by this decision — it’s a significant victory in our ongoing fight to protect the quality of our air. We still have work to do to make sure that this project only moves forward with the proper environmental safeguards. I am pleased the Obama Administration is taking action to reverse the disastrous environmental policies of the Bush Administration.”

New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry said air emissions from Desert Rock would have single-handedly undone the state’s climate change initiatives. “We stand ready to assist EPA Region 9 and the Navajo Nation to make significant improvements to the design of this facility, including technologies that will address greenhouse gas emissions.”

Jeff Holmstead, former assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation under the Bush Administration and now head of the Environmental Strategies Group at Bracewell & Giuliani, which represents Sithe, said EPA’s motion came as a complete surprise.

“I’ve worked on environmental issues for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t think anyone ever imagined that the new team at EPA would seem to have such little regard for due process or basic notions of fairness. Everyone understands that a new administration has discretion to change rules and policies prospectively.

But I’ve never seen any administration try to change policies and rules retroactively,” he said.

New York Times April 28, 2009

By ROBIN BRAVENDER, Greenwire

U.S. EPA wants to reconsider the permits it issued for a major coal-fired power project in New Mexico, a bid that environmentalists say signals a bleak future for coal plant proposals under the Obama administration.

EPA's Environmental Appeals Board is weighing an agency request (pdf) to rethink permits for the Desert Rock Energy Facility, a 1,500-megawatt plant planned for Navajo Nation land about 25 miles southwest of Farmington, N.M.

EPA told the board yesterday that the agency wanted to address several issues, including soot emissions, possible effects on endangered species and concerns about pollution-control technologies.

Environmentalists see the request as an opportunity for EPA to address legal and scientific concerns they contend were overlooked by the Bush administration, which granted the permit last July.

The facility would be the area's third power plant, joining the 2,040-megawatt Four Corners plant and the 1,800-megawatt San Juan Generating Station. Critics warn that the plant could emit hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases over its lifespan, as well as pollutants that are already regulated under the Clean Air Act.

"I think that this underscores that coal plants are a bad investment and that they face significant hurdles in being built, especially under the new administration," said Nick Persampieri, an Earthjustice attorney for groups that oppose the project. "We really think this sends a signal to developers that they ought to be pushing renewable energy projects, and the Desert Rock site is well-suited for development of solar resources as well as wind."

Sithe Global Power LLC first proposed the Navajo Nation plant in 2004, only to have it stalled by permitting delays and legal battles. In January, EPA withdrew the carbon dioxide portion of its final permit for the project, saying its decision not to regulate the greenhouse gas under the Bush administration needed additional justification. The comment period on the CO2 portion of the permit ended recently, but a decision to remand the rest of the permit to EPA would mean even further delays.

Darrin Swartz-Larson, a spokesman for the EPA Region 9 office in San Francisco, said it was unclear when the appeals board would review the motion.

Jeff Holmstead, an industry attorney whose firm represents the Desert Rock developers, criticized EPA for attempting to change its policies retroactively.

"This permit application was submitted almost five years ago," Holmstead said. "Under the law, the agency was supposed to make a decision on the permit within one year, but the permitting process dragged on for several years as the company and the Navajo Nation tried to address everyone's concerns."

He added, "Finally, EPA issued a permit -- the most stringent of any such permit in the country. We are well into the appeals process, and now EPA wants the Navajo Nation and its partners to go back and start over again under different rules."

Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. also expressed disappointment that EPA's request could further stall development plans. Developers estimate that the plant would bring in more than $50 million annually for the Navajo Nation.

"This isn't just about energy," Shirley said. "This is about sovereignty. ... This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems."

But Vickie Patton, a senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, disputed the notion that coal-fired energy was the region's only available path to economic growth.

"This area has world-class renewable and clean-energy resources -- virtually unparalleled," Patton said. "And there's a pivotal opportunity for economic revitalization in an area where it is urgently needed and where it could be achieved through clean energy solutions that will be deployed on the ground faster and cheaper."


Copyright 2009 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

For more news on energy and the environment, visit www.greenwire.com.

Santa Fe New Mexican Apr 28, 4:01 AM EDT

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN
Associated Press Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked an appeals board to allow the agency to reconsider an air permit issued last year for a planned coal-fired power plant on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico.

Regional EPA officials want to reconsider the parts of the permit for the $3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project that were appealed by the state of New Mexico and environmentalists who were concerned about air quality, carbon dioxide emissions and violations of the Endangered Species Act.

EPA spokesman Darrin Swartz-Larson said Monday it was unclear when the Environmental Appeals Board will rule on the EPA's request, but environmentalists were already hailing the agency's motion as a big roadblock for Desert Rock.

"It's still our position that the project should not be built," said Nick Persampieri, an attorney with Earthjustice, which represents a coalition of environmental groups. "There's no demonstrated need for the project and we are hopeful that the final outcome will be that the project will not be built."

The tribe's Dine Power Authority and Houston-based Sithe Global LLC have partnered to build the 1,500-megawatt power plant on the Navajo reservation south of Farmington. They have said Desert Rock would be one of the cleanest coal-burning plants in the nation and it would generate more than $50 million in annual revenues and create jobs on a reservation where more than half of people are unemployed.

Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. said Monday he was disappointed to learn of the EPA's move only after the motion was filed. He said he had hoped that a new administration in Washington would mean a change in the way the federal government has consulted with his tribe.

Shirley has requested a meeting with President Barack Obama to talk about Desert Rock.

"This isn't just about energy," Shirley said. "This is about sovereignty. This is about saving self. This is about the Navajo Nation regaining its independence by developing the financial wherewithal to take care of its own problems."

Jeff Holmstead, lead attorney in the fight to build Desert Rock and a former assistant administrator for air at EPA, was surprised by the EPA's action and said the agency seems to have little regard for due process or fairness.

"We are well into the appeals process, and now EPA wants the Navajo Nation and its partners to go back and start over again under different rules," he said.

If the motion to remand the permit is granted, it will be sent back to the EPA for further analysis, something that could take many months and another round of public comment.

According to the EPA motion, the agency wants to reassess the limits for particulate matter emissions and whether the plant would use the best available pollution control technology.

The agency also wants to finish consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about endangered species issues and fully analyze methods for controlling hazardous emissions.

Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance said the permit should not have been issued in the first place, but he was hopeful that EPA "will take its responsibilities seriously" under the new administration.

The environmental groups have argued that Desert Rock - which would be the third coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners region - would further degrade air quality, harm the environment and impact human health.

State officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson and Environment Secretary Ron Curry, applauded the EPA's move.

"We still have work to do to make sure that this project only moves forward with the proper environmental safeguards," Richardson said in a statement.

Shirley has said that tribal leaders would not have supported such a project if it endangered their people or residents in neighboring states.

"We're talking clean coal. We're talking carbon capture," Shirley said in a recent interview. "We want the Desert Rock power plant to be not only a model for the United States of America but for the world regarding the use of clean coal technology."

In today's New York Time's Ideas & Trends: Things to Remember the Boom by

The $5 million Birthday Party Stephen A. Schwarzman, co-founder of the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, threw one for himself in February 2007. His parties may be getting smaller. Mr. Schwarzman's net worth has since declined by more than half, to $2.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Farmington Daily Times April 25, 2009


Staff Writer
Posted: 04/25/2009 11:25:45 PM MDT

Editor:

Despite being a chronic liability and constant embarrassment to the great Navajo Nation, the Diné Power Authority is asking for another $2 million to perpetuate its overly expensive though dismal existence as a failing tribal enterprise with absolutely no track record in energy development and transportation for which it was originally established.

Comes now the dishonorable Councilmen and DPA board members Norman John II and Tim Goodluck who are unethically co-sponsoring the subject supplemental appropriation legislation, which not only reeks with conflict of interest, but again raises disturbing questions about their actual fitness to serve and act in the Navajo public interest.

DPA was chartered as a tribal enterprise to make a profit for the tribe. Yet it has consistently failed to do so and is in clear violation of its statutory mission and approved plan of operation. It is an incorrigible, unproductive tribal welfare agency which exists, fiscal year to fiscal year and special session to special session, with annual and supplemental subsidies from the tribe without proper oversight or accountability.

The hemorrhaging of tribal funds notwithstanding, DPA has accomplished nothing with the $18 million received so far. The ill-conceived Navajo Transmission Project has been justifiably remanded and, because it is not viable, should now be abandoned. The Desert Rock Energy Project has never been viable, as it still lacks a legally approvable air quality permit and technically adequate environmental impact statement. It, too, should be abandoned, and the plug pulled on DPA.

The $2 million in question should instead go to Diné CARE's proposed renewable energy alternative to Desert Rock. The harnessing of solar and wind power in Navajoland is sustainable development with a bright and abundant future. It is and will be based on using the natural blessings of our Mother Earth and Father Sky for Diné, for the People, for all time.


SARAH JANE WHITE
Littlewater

VICTORIA GUTIERREZ
Fruitland

Despite being a chronic liability and constant embarrassment to the great Navajo Nation, the Dine Power Authority is now asking for another $2 million to perpetuate its overly expensive though dismal existence as a failing tribal enterprise with absolutely no track record in energy development and transportation for which it was originally established.

Comes now the dishonorable Councilmen and DPA board members Norman John II and Tim Goodluck who are unethically co-sponsoring the subject supplemental appropriation legislation which not only reeks with conflict of interest but again raises disturbing questions about their actual fitness to serve and act in the Navajo public interest.

DPA was chartered as a tribal enterprise to make a profit for the tribe. Yet it has consistently failed to do so and is in clear violation of its statutory mission and approved plan of operation. It is an incorrigible, unproductive tribal welfare agency which exists fiscal year to fiscal year and special session to special session with annual and supplemental subsidies from the tribe without proper oversight or accountability.

The hemorrhaging of tribal funds notwithstanding, DPA has accomplished nothing with the $18 million received so far. The ill-conceived Navajo Transmission Project has been justifiably remanded and because it is not viable, should now be abandoned. The Desert Rock Energy Project has never been viable as it still lacks a legally approvable air quality permit and technically adequate environmental impact statement. It too should be abandoned, and the plug pulled on DPA.

The $2 million in question should instead go to Dine CARE's proposed renewable energy alternative to Desert Rock. The harnessing of solar and wind power in Navajoland is sustainable development with a bright and abundant future. It is and will be based on using the natural blessings of our Mother Earth and Father Sky for Dine, for the People, for all time.

Sarah Jane White
Victoria Gutierrez

By MARJORIE CHILDRESS 4/17/09 2:31 PM

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a finding today that six greenhouse gases cause air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare. The finding also found that emissions from motor vehicles contribute to the concentration of three of those gases, which contributes to climate change.

Air pollution is regulated under the federal Clean Air Act, so this finding is a step toward the EPA implementing regulation of carbon dioxide, which it the primary gas responsible for global warming.

This is a big deal for New Mexico, as the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant in the Four Corners region received an air quality permit from the EPA under the Bush administration, despite protests by the state of New Mexico, environmental organizations and citizens of Navajo Nation that the EPA had not considered the impact of carbon dioxide released from the plant into the atmosphere. The Navajo Nation itself strongly supports the project.

That air quality permit is currently being appealed by the state of New Mexico.

The six gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

According to the EPA news release, science “clearly shows” that these gases are at unprecedented concentration levels as the result of human emissions, and that these levels are “very likely” the cause of increased climate temperatures.

The finding states that “In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem. The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act.”

The EPA statement also said science shows a link between climate change and negative effects on human health. These impacts included higher concentrations of ground-level ozone; increased drought; more heavy downpours and flooding; more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires; greater sea level rise; more intense storms; and harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems.

Additionally, the statement said, new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson took into account the disproportionate impact of these impacts on the health of certain groups of people, “…such as the poor, the very young, the elderly, those already in poor health, the disabled, those living alone and/or indigenous populations dependent on one or a few resources.”

The EPA also stated that global warming is a national security issue as resources like water become more scare forcing mass migrations into more stabilized regions.

This announcement results from a review by the Obama administration of the findings from a prior EPA scientific review ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, looking at whether or not greenhouse gases harm the environment. EPA scientists said they did, but the Bush administration suppressed those results, and never acted to regulate the greenhouse gases.

Obama ordered the review shortly after taking office, which was widely expected.

The finding will now be placed in the federal register, and the public has 60 days from that point to provide comments to the EPA. A final rule will be made after that.

Source: http://newmexicoindependent.com/25343/epa-makes-move-to-regulate-greenhouse-gases-under-the-clean-air-act

By Susan Montoya Bryan / The Associated Press
Posted: 04/13/2009 03:27:15 PM MDT

ALBUQUERQUE - Feelings of bitterness and mistrust have long permeated American Indians' relationship with government, but New Mexico hopes to change that with a new law that requires all state agencies to cooperate with tribal governments.

Indian leaders from New Mexico and elsewhere are excited about the state's expanded spirit of cooperation, but it's already being put to the test by a plan for a $3 billion coal-fired power plant on the nation's largest Indian reservation.

The Navajo Nation is partnering with Houston-based Sithe Global Power to build the Desert Rock Energy Project in northwestern New Mexico. The tribe says the plant would bring in millions of dollars in annual revenue and provide hundreds of jobs on a reservation where more than half of the people are unemployed.

But Gov. Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Environment Department and others are critical of the plant, saying it would further degrade air quality in the Four Corners region - home to two existing coal-fired plants.

State and Navajo leaders had two formal meetings last year about Desert Rock before talks ended.

Now, with Richardson signing the state-tribal collaboration act just weeks ago, the Navajos are waiting to see how New Mexico will implement the new law.

George Hardeen, a spokesman for Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., said Desert Rock is "the most important and biggest project Navajo Nation has ever undertaken."

"Because of that," Hardeen said, "the Navajo Nation hopes the new collaboration act is more than just a fleeting hyperbolic moment for the governor and more significant than the creation of a department of wishful thinking."

Richardson has called the act "a landmark bill," saying it will strengthen the relationship between the state and the 22 sovereign tribes, pueblos and nations within its boundaries.

Some officials see the act as a model for ushering in a new era in state-tribal relations.

"It really is unique. There is no other law like this in the United States," said Alvin Warren, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs and a member of the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians and governor of Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico, described it as a "guiding light for the rest of the country."

The law requires 34 state agencies to appoint at least one tribal liaison. They also must provide special training for employees who work with tribes, and they have to develop policies promoting better communication with tribes by the end of the year.

The law also mandates an annual state-tribal summit between the New Mexico governor and Indian leaders.

Tribal leaders, including Navajo officials, have already met to plan for the first summit, Hardeen said.

The law follows years of work to better state-tribal relationships. It started in 2003 with the elevation of Indian Affairs to a cabinet-level department. In 2005, Richardson signed an executive order establishing a state-tribal consultation pilot program.

The next step was to establish consistency across state government, Warren said.

"It isn't just symbolic," he said of the new law. "There's a practicality to the governor meeting on an annual basis with all of the tribal leaders. There's a practicality to having tribal liaisons as a permanent part of each cabinet agency."

Navajo officials hope the new statutory requirement for cooperation will help smooth over hard feeling regarding the state's position on the Desert Rock project. The tribe complained that New Mexico officials often criticize the project without warning tribal officials.

"The very least the state environment secretary can do or the governor can do is pick up the phone to let the Navajo president know he's about to be blasted in tomorrow's newspaper," Hardeen said.

Milton Bluehouse Jr., the department's tribal liaison, said his office tries to get as much information to tribal officials as possible. The department invited tribes to help update the department's consultation policy and held meetings to discuss environmental justice with tribal leaders, he said.

"I don't think it could be said that we have overlooked our efforts in conducting tribal outreach," he said.

Bluehouse, who used to work for the Navajo Nation, acknowledged that historically, state-tribal relationships haven't been as good as they could have been. However, he said those lessons were what led New Mexico lawmakers and tribal leaders to overwhelmingly support the collaboration act.

Warren said he sees the act as an investment that will allow the state and the tribe to pool their resources and advocate for policies that will benefit everyone in New Mexico.

"Nobody expects that the state and each tribe will agree on every issue," he said. "... What this symbolizes and what this places in statute is that it will be the focus of state and tribal governments to build long-term relationships."

Gallup Independent
Letter to the Editor
Published April 11, 2009

Dear Editor,

This letter is written in response to the Gallup Independent's Thursday April 2, article entitled "New Mexico Questions Desert Rock Fish Impact." The article refers to statements by Navajo Nation Office of the President and Vice President Communications Director George Hardeen that the New Mexico Environment Department failed to consult with the Navajo Nation government on the Desert Rock coal-fired power plant project.

The Environment Department has been open to the Nation and has gone to great lengths to facilitate an open dialogue about the project. The department formally met and consulted with the Nation about Desert Rock on Jan. 23, 2008 in Window Rock, Ariz., and Feb. 22, 2008 in Santa Fe.

NMED both shared its views and received comments from Navajo Nation officials at those formal government-to-government consultation meetings. NMED also sent letters and e-mail correspondence to the Navajo Nation to solicit its participation and comments in the department's annual State-Tribal Environmental Summit and the department's Tribal Consultation Plan. Unfortunately, the Nation chose not to not participate or provide comments.

We were disappointed that the Nation broke off consultation talks with the Environment Department following the meeting in Santa Fe but we remain committed to reengaging in talks should the Nation want to further explore ways to make the proposed Desert Rock plan more environmentally advanced than what is currently being proposed.

Under the leadership of Governor Richardson, the Environment Department has worked extensively with the Nation, tribal members and Navajo communities on environmental issues over the years and has the utmost respect for the Navajo people, their culture, and the sacred relationship of living in harmony with Mother Earth and the environment.

As an example, NMED looks forward to working with the Nation and local Navajo communities in the coming months to help implement $17 million in needed water and wastewater infrastructure improvements. Governor Richardson has done more than any other governor in the United States to advance tribal-state relations and to work with and support New Mexico Indian Nations, Tribes and Pueblos while respecting tribal sovereignty.

NMED remains open to meeting again with the Navajo Nation to discuss clean technology alternatives to protect the environment from harmful pollutants from coal burning power plants. The responsibility of taking action to address global climate change is one we must all share and be open to discussing.

Sincerely,

Ron Curry
Cabinet Secretary

Thursday April 2, 2009

Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — New Mexico Environment Department has requested a meeting with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the impacts of emissions from the proposed Desert Rock power plant on threatened and endangered species.

NMED Secretary Ron Curry sent a letter March 30 to the service’s New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office Supervisor Wally Murphy requesting a meeting to discuss the biological assessment for the plant.

“The assessment indicates 13 chemicals of potential concern, including high levels of mercury and selenium, will be emitted from the proposed Desert Rock facility and will impact the San Juan River and the Rio Grande,” Curry stated in the letter.

“New Mexico already suffers from the highest emissions of mercury in the nation and San Juan County has the highest mercury emissions in the state. We must do everything possible to protect our rivers, streams, fish and wildlife from impacts from the proposed facility.”

The assessment, prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Area Office, and the service by contractor Ecosphere Environmental Services, also indicates these pollutants potentially could jeopardize the Colorado Pikeminnow and Razorback Sucker. Both are on the endangered species list.

George Hardeen, communications director for the Navajo Nation Office of the President/Vice President, blasted Curry for his lack of consultation with Navajo.

“It’s farcical that just weeks after Governor Richardson signed the New Mexico State-Tribal Consultation Act that Secretary Curry still ignores the Navajo Nation regarding the most important project it has ever undertaken.

“His insistence to issue press statements and consult with others except for the Navajo Nation about Desert Rock now disrespects the New Mexico Legislature, Governor Richardson, to say nothing of the Navajo Nation Council and the Navajo Nation president. But it says a lot about the New Mexico Environment Department’s utter failure to complete the tribal consultation it began with the Navajo Nation regarding Desert Rock.

“To paraphrase Samuel Mayer, Secretary Curry’s handshake is not worth the paper it’s printed on,” Hardeen said.

Copies of Ecosphere’s December 2008 assessment can be obtained from the bureau or the service. The San Juan River is considered one of the best trout fishing streams in the country but like most streams and lakes in the region, it is under mercury advisories for fish consumption.

Naturally occurring mercury in the region, coupled with mercury emissions from power plants in San Juan County already cause adverse effects in the region and Desert Rock will only make worse the risk to public health, endangered and non-endangered aquatic species, according to the state.

“The Navajo people didn’t put mercury into the San Juan River. The Navajo people didn’t harm the fish. The Navajo people didn’t create global warming or change the climate around the world. But the Navajo people are being held responsible for all that by the state Environment Department that has allowed the river to become so polluted on Secretary Curry’s watch,” Hardeen said.

Mercury is a toxic pollutant that can cause death, reduced reproduction, impaired growth, and behavioral abnormalities in fish at relatively low levels. Wildlife and birds feeding on mercury contaminated fish also suffer adverse affects. In humans, methylmercury can cause brain and kidney damage.

The Endangered Species Act requires that the service has an opportunity to review and make recommendations on a biological assessment prior to a permit being issued. The previous administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to complete that process before issuing the Desert Rock air quality permit.

The U.S. Environmental Appeals Board is in the process of reviewing the Desert Rock permit. The board will decide whether to approve or remand the permit to EPA Region 9.

N.M. official wants to know about effects on species

by Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press Writer
Article Last Updated; Thursday, April 02, 2009

ALBUQUERQUE - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to meet with the New Mexico Environment Department about potential impacts to threatened and endangered species by a proposed coal-fired power plant on Navajo land in northwestern New Mexico.

Environment Secretary Ron Curry requested the meeting to discuss the biological assessment of the Desert Rock Energy Project, which is being developed by Houston-based Sithe Global Power and the Navajo Nation.

Curry said Wednesday the assessment indicates mercury and other chemicals will be emitted by the plant and those chemicals will have an impact on the San Juan River and the Rio Grande as well as species living there.

"New Mexico already suffers from the highest emissions of mercury in the nation and San Juan County has the highest mercury emissions in the state," Curry said. "We must do everything possible to protect our rivers, streams, fish and wildlife from impacts from the proposed facility."

San Juan County already has two coal-fired power plants, and critics have complained that Desert Rock would further degrade air quality and harm the environment and public health.

But Desert Rock developers maintain that the plant's emissions-control equipment would make it the cleanest coal-fired plant in the nation.

Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Sithe Global, said Curry's announcement is another effort by the state to mislead people about the proposed plant.
"The modeling shows that the mercury emissions are going to be really low because we're using such advanced pollution controls," Maisano said.

"Mercury, while always a concern, is never going to rise to the levels here where it would be an issue to be worried about."

Jose Viramontes, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Albuquerque, said the agency has accepted Curry's invitation to meet.

"Any time we can get any scientific information that will increase our knowledge of potential impacts to endangered species, we welcome that type of information," Viramontes said.

The agency is reviewing the biological assessment and plans to complete a draft opinion by the summer, he said.


Contents copyright ©, the Durango Herald. All rights reserved.

April 1, 2009

Contact: Marissa Stone, NMED Communications Director
For Immediate Release (505) 827-0314 or (505) 231-0475

Environment Secretary Requests Meeting with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Impacts on Fish from Emissions from Proposed Desert Rock Power Plant

(Santa Fe, NM) New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry requested a meeting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the impacts from mercury and other emissions from the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant on threatened and endangered species.

Secretary Curry sent a letter (below) to the service's New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office Supervisor Wally Murphy requesting a meeting to discuss the Biological Assessment for the plant.

"The assessment indicates thirteen chemicals of potential concern, including high levels of mercury and selenium, will be emitted from the proposed Desert Rock facility and will impact the San Juan River and the Rio Grande," Secretary Curry states in the letter. "New Mexico already suffers from the highest emissions of mercury in the nation and San Juan County has the highest mercury emissions in the state. We must do everything possible to protect our rivers, streams, fish and wildlife from impacts from the proposed facility."

The assessment, prepared for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Navajo Area Office and the service by contractor Ecosphere Environmental Services, also indicates these pollutants could potentially jeopardize the Colorado Pikeminnow and Razorback Sucker. Copies of the assessment, which was completed in December 2008, can be obtained from the bureau or the service. The San Juan River is considered one of the best trout fishing streams in the country but like most streams and lakes in the region, it is under mercury advisories for fish consumption. Mercury emissions from power plants in San Juan County already cause adverse effects in the region, and Desert Rock will exacerbate the risk to public health and both endangered and non-endangered aquatic species.

Mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants are deposited in lakes and streams and can be absorbed into soils and transported to waterways.

Methylmercury, an oxidized form of mercury emitted from power plants, accumulates most quickly in fish and other species and takes the longest time to dissipate. Thus it is critical to control mercury, selenium, and other hazardous pollutants at the source to reduce their accumulation in the environment.

Mercury is a toxic pollutant that can cause death, reduced reproduction, impaired growth, and behavioral abnormalities in fish at relatively low levels. Wildlife and birds feeding on mercury contaminated fish also suffer adverse affects. In humans, methylmercury can cause brain and kidney damage.

The Endangered Species Act requires that the service has an opportunity to review and make recommendations on a biological assessment prior to a permit being issued. The previous administration's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to complete that process before issuing the Desert Rock air quality permit.

The U.S. Environmental Appeals Board is in the process of reviewing the Desert Rock permit. The board will decide whether to approve or remand the permit to EPA Region 9.

For more information, call Marissa Stone at (505) 827-0314.


Letter:

March 30, 2009

Wally Murphy
US Fish & Wildlife Service
New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office
2105 Osuna NE
Albuquerque, NM 87113

by electronic mail (Wally_Murphy@fws.gov) and facsimile (505.346.2542)

Re: Biological Assessment for Proposed Desert Rock Energy Project

Dear Mr. Murphy:

The New Mexico Environment Department requests a meeting with your agency to discuss our concerns regarding the Biological Assessment for the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project submitted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in December 2008. The Department is particularly concerned about the adequacy of the Assessment in light of the predicted impacts of mercury and selenium on the San Juan River and Rio Grande and the endangered species living there, and the failure of the Desert Rock promoters to apply the best available technology for controlling these pollutants.

New Mexico already suffers from the highest emissions of mercury in the nation, and San Juan County has the highest mercury emissions in the state. Mercury emissions from power plants in San Juan County already cause adverse effects in the region, and Desert Rock will exacerbate the risk to public health and both endangered and non-endangered aquatic species.

The Department is available to meet at your convenience. Mr. Jon Goldstein, Deputy Secretary of the Department, will contact you to schedule a meeting.

Sincerely,


Ron Curry
New Mexico Environment Department Secretary

Monday, March 30, 2009

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The attorneys general of New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon and Vermont have jointly submitted comments to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency voicing concerns regarding the proposed issuance of an air quality permit for construction of the Desert Rock power plant.

The attorneys general said they believe EPA’s Region 9 cannot properly rely on a memo from former EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, issued about a month before the Bush administration left office, as the basis for refusing to impose the “best available control technology” requirement for carbon dioxide.

“Rushed through without an opportunity for public comment, the Johnson memo was issued in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” they said.

Johnson issued the memo Dec. 18, saying that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant “subject to regulation” under the Clean Air Act. The attorneys general said the legal interpretation of “subject to regulation” in the Johnson memo is inconsistent with the act.

“The Johnson memo’s interpretation of the act is erroneous,” they said. “EPA Administrator (Lisa) Jackson’s announcement last month that the agency is reconsidering the Johnson memo reflects an acknowledgment of these concerns.”

Several environmental groups have petitioned EPA to reconsider the Johnson memo and separately filed a petition for review in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Subsequently, the state of California filed its own challenge. The D.C. Circuit litigation has been stayed pending EPA’s completion of its reconsideration of the Johnson memo. On Feb. 17, Administrator Jackson announced that EPA was granting the petition for reconsideration.

The attorneys general said that Desert Rock is expected to emit 12 million to 13 million tons of carbon dioxide annually and that applying the flawed legal interpretation in the Johnson memo could lead to the addition of several hundred million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere over the life of the plant.

“Such a result would be wholly inconsistent with the Obama administration’s pledge to deal with global warming pollution from power plants,” they said.

Desert Rock, a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant to be built on the Navajo Nation near Farmington, will employ state-of-the-art technology and have the most stringent limits on emissions of any coal-fired power plant in the country, according to developers Diné Power Authority and Sithe Global Power of Houston.

The Navajo Nation Council has approved all components necessary for the project to move forward from its end, however, approval of the Navajo Transmission Project, which is needed to transmit any power generated by the plant to areas such as Phoenix and Las Vegas, is back on the table for reconsideration following a challenge by Western Environmental Law Center.

The law center contended that the two projects are “connected actions” and that without the transmission project, Desert Rock cannot be built because there is no way to convey the electricity generated.

The attorneys general asked Region 9 not to make a decision about including a best available control technology limit for carbon dioxide in the Desert Rock permit until EPA headquarters completes its reconsideration of the Johnson memo.

The projected 12-13 million tons of carbon dioxide per year to be emitted by Desert Rock would amount to more than 120-130 million tons over the live of the plant, “thus significantly contributing to the public health and environmental harms associated with global warming,” they said.

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that the global community must reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, to well below 1990 levels within a few decades. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently declared: “If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future.”

Twenty three states are participating in a regional cap-and-trade programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and several states now require power plants to meet emission rates that will limit the generation of greenhouse gas emissions.

EPA Region 9 issued the air permit for Desert Rock in July 2008, and at the time, declined to include a best available control technology limit for carbon dioxide emissions, based on the rationale that it lacked the authority to do so given previous agency interpretations, the attorneys general said

By John Kenny

Published on Mon., March 30th, 2009

There is no word for “relocation” in the Navajo language. But 12,000 Navajo have been forced to move off their traditional homelands ever since Congress passed Public Law 93-531 in 1974. The cause of this massive removal of Native Americans was coal and the vast wealth it can produce. About one-third of the coal in America lies under Native American reservations, and energy corporations, working within the capitalistic game for profit, are not always kind to everyone in pursuit of the mineral.

I traveled to the Navajo Reservation on an alternative spring break through Ecumenical Christian Ministries. I went intending to experience a different culture, and to witness its sustainable lifestyle. However, I found it impossible not to become politicized when I heard their stories of what Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company, has done to the Navajo people.

The Reservation, centered in the Four Corners region of Arizona, offers a rugged, yet beautiful, landscape. The flat red land stretches almost endlessly with intermittent interruptions by awesome, black volcanic peaks and plateaus. The Navajo herd sheep daily through this landscape of tumbleweeds and desert grasses. But what was once a thriving community, with many head of horse, sheep and cattle, lively traditional ceremonies and amazing blanket weaving, now instead is a place that the National Academy of Science has termed a “national sacrifice area” in the interests of energy development.

In addition to relocation, the Navajo have experienced other ill effects of mineral extraction on their land. The Black Mesa coal mine is the only place in America that uses a coal slurry line to transport mined coal 273 miles out of Arizona and into Nevada. This slurry line has been using a billion gallons of water annually for the past 30 years, and has been draining water resources on which the native people greatly depend. This method of mining, strip-mining, literally strips the landscape down to the depth of coal. In addition, acid runoff from the mining operations contaminates nearby water sources, a scarce resource in this region. As Martin Sheen narrated in “Broken Rainbow,” the 1985 Academy Award winning documentary on the issue, “it is no longer possible to separate environmental issues from Native American survival.”

In this case, the destruction that Peabody Coal creates is simply a side effect of its efforts to increase profitability for its shareholders. It is often helped along by the tribal councils — which should not be confused with the native population — who seek personal gain through piggybacking off this giant corporation.

Unfortunately, Judith Niles, writing for Orion magazine, says that what is happening on the reservation is just one example of a global trend, a “syndrome in which transnational corporations take and exploit indigenous lands with the cooperation of host governments.” Are we choosing profit over people?

Kenny is a Leavenworth senior in civil and environmental engineering.

Chairmen Waxman, Markey Release Discussion Draft of New Clean Energy Legislation

Chairman Henry A. Waxman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee today released a draft of clean energy legislation that will create jobs, help end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and combat global warming. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) is a comprehensive approach to America’s energy policy that charts a new course towards a clean energy economy.

“This legislation will create millions of clean energy jobs, put America on the path to energy independence, and cut global warming pollution.” said Chairman Waxman. “Our goal is to strengthen our economy by making America the world leader in new clean energy and energy efficiency technologies.”

“This legislation will create clean energy jobs that can’t be shipped overseas, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and make America the global leader in energy technology. We will create jobs by the millions, save money by the billions, and unleash energy investment by the trillions,” said Chairman Markey, who held many hearings on the major issues in the bill. “Chairman Waxman and I will work with our colleagues to ensure that we are protecting American consumers and that our clean energy future helps all parts of the country.”

The American Clean Energy and Security Act will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, enhance America’s energy independence, and cut global warming pollution. To meet these goals, the legislation has four titles:

• A clean energy title that promotes renewable sources of energy, carbon capture and sequestration technologies, low-carbon fuels, clean electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission;
• An energy efficiency title that increases energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy, including buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry;
• A global warming title that places limits on emissions of heat-trapping pollutants; and
• A transitioning title that protects U.S. consumers and industry and promotes green jobs during the transition to a clean energy economy.
The Energy and Commerce Committee will complete consideration of the legislation by Memorial Day. The preliminary schedule follows:
• Week of April 20: Energy and Environment Subcommittee Hearings
• Week of April 27: Energy and Environment Subcommittee Markup Period Begins
• Week of May 11: Full Energy and Commerce Committee Markup Period Begins

Documents
• American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 Discussion Draft Full Text
• American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 Discussion Draft Summary

By Steve Lynn The Daily Times

Posted: 03/26/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT

The bill that would authorize funding to settle the Navajo Nation's water rights claims and a pipeline serving the Nation and Gallup heads to President Barack Obama.

Written partly by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act won approval Wednesday from the U.S. House. Bingaman expects that early next week Obama will sign into law the measure, part of a public lands bill that cleared the Senate in January.

The legislation would authorize federal funding for a pipeline to serve Gallup and the Navajo reservation and various water conservation projects in addition to settling Navajo water rights claims in the San Juan River Basin, according to Bingaman's office.

The Nation suffers from a lack of drinking water, but the bill would "bring water for the first time to some Navajo homes," Bingaman said in a prepared statement.

"It's very important that we find solutions to these water disputes, Indian water disputes, going on in our state," the Democratic senator said. "Probably the largest of those, dollar-wise and impact-wise, has been this Navajo-Gallup dispute."

The state of New Mexico and the tribe signed an agreement in 2005 that resolves the tribe's water claims.

Bingaman's bill authorizes $870 million for the project, the bulk of which the federal government would fund through about two decades, according to Bingaman's office. The state and communities served would pay for a portion of the project.

Bingaman said some funding could come from the $787 billion economic recovery package. He also would ask the Obama administration to set aside funding for the pipeline in the future.
"It's clear it will take some substantial period of time to build out this Navajo-Gallup pipeline," Bingaman said. The bill provides a "road map for how we can proceed to appropriate funds to get this done."

The legislation would recognize about 600,000 acre-feet per year of water that would go to Navajo people for agricultural, industrial, municipal, domestic and stock watering purposes. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Steve Lynn: slynn@daily-times.com

The Navajo Times
March 12, 2009

On Feb. 27th, the Navajo Nation Council approved the rights-of-way for Diné Power Authority, as a grantee, and Desert Rock Energy Co., as assignee, by a vote of 71-8.

The legislation has been reduced to Resolution CF-09-09 after President Joe Shirley Jr. signed it.

Although some delegates were saying that this legislation was only about the ROW, we were actually approving the final Navajo step before the construction of Desert Rock Power Plant in northwest New Mexico (the lease was already approved on May 12, 2006). The remaining steps are to get federal air quality and other permits.

Upon final federal approvals, DRPP will be built. The council is entrusted with protecting and guarding the sovereign immunity of the Navajo Nation. With Desert Rock legislation, it failed to do so. Instead, it gave away the right to sue Navajo Nation to DREC, a non-Navajo, Delaware corporation.

DREC will now manage this right to permitted assignees that acquire an interest in DRPP. There is no control on how DREC gives away this right to sue.

Navajo Nation is not guaranteed any ownership rights for approving the lease and ROWs. Navajo Nation will have to stand in line like everyone else to acquire an ownership interest in the power plant. Many council delegates were under the mistaken belief that we were going to own part of the power plant if it was approved.

This venture was negotiated in an upside down manner. DREC got the lease and ROW first before it even thinks about giving the Navajo Nation any interest in the project. This is not the way to build the DRPP Project.

We look to elder delegates to guide us, but some of them characterized my amendment to protect the Navajo Nation as a "deal-killer" in favor of the non-Navajo company.

Despite the "deal-killer" comments, I want to thank Delegates Acothley, Anderson, Ayze, Becenti, Bedonie, E. Begay, K. Begay, M. Begay, N. Begaye, Benally, Bennett, Bodie, Clark, Claw, Colorado, Curley, B. Curley, Dele, Gorman, Hubbard, E. Jim, R. Jim, Johnson, Lonetree, Manheimer, Maxx, Nelson, Rico, Robbins, Shondee, D. Tom, Tracey, T. Tsosie, Willeto, Edmund Yazzie, E. Yazzie Jr., and Peterson Yazzie for originally voting to protect the sovereign immunity (sovereignty) of the Navajo people's government and protect its assets and not give away the right to sue Navajo government to DREC. These council delegates do think about their people.

The Navajo people should thank the delegates that voted to protect the nation and hold those other delegates accountable and ask them why they prefer to turn in the sovereignty for a few million dollars.

We also sought amendments to have DPA and DREC pay more for the ROW and for carbon trading. The majority of the council wanted to wait on these amendments until later. The only problem is that if we negotiate these later, DREC will want more from the nation.

At the end, one of the delegates told the council to vote for the legislation as-is and they should be proud and be known for their votes.

I chose not to be known for giving away the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation (its sovereign immunity) and voted in the negative. 'Ahéhee'.

Leonard Tsosie
Council Delegate
Pueblo Pintado, Whitehorse Lake, and Torreon Chapters

Article Highlights:
· Top administrators promised to improve and assist tribes in developing energy resources.
· DOE Secretary Chu wants federal government to move faster on cleaning up atomic energy sites on or near reservations.
· DOI Secretary Salazar said his department will assist tribes in efforts to harness solar and wind energy. 77 reservations identified for commercial-scale wind resources to support viable wind-based economies in states with policies requiring utilities to purchase a percentage of their power from renewable sources.
· EPA Administrator Jackson noted, “It’s time to move the location of [EPA’s Tribal Division from Water Division] to give it more of a crosscutting role in the agency. It’s something that I intend to address very soon.” Jackson also pledged to hold a summit with tribes in the fall that will focus on improving tribal programs and agency responses to climate change.
________________________________________________________


Obama Cabinet members make energy commitments to tribes

By Rob Capriccioso

Story Published: Mar 12, 2009


WASHINGTON – Members of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet impressed tribal attendees of the National Congress of American Indians winter session, held in early March. Several top administrators promised to improve and assist tribes in developing energy resources, while strengthening federal and tribal relations.

In sum, addresses were given by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecelia Munoz.

Chu seemed to make the biggest impression, given the desires of many tribes to benefit from energy initiatives, including renewable developments, planned for by the Obama administration.

The secretary promised to fully empower a tribal office in the energy department and to hold a summit this year on energy issues that affect Indian country. The most recent such summit was held in 1994.

“It is important for policy makers to hear tribal leader’s concerns,” Chu said in a speech given March 3. “It is the obligation of the department to include American Indians and Alaska Natives in the decision making process. Indian country must have a seat at the table. The challenges are great, but the possibilities are greater.”

Chu further said he supports energy tax production credits for tribes and wants the federal government to move faster on cleaning up atomic energy sites on or near reservations.

His remarks were met by a large round of applause.

Mark Macarro, chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, said Chu’s remarks were refreshing, especially given the limited attention to tribal issues from the Bush administration during the previous eight years.

“I think this bodes well for the kinds of things we are hoping will be beneficial for Indian country.”

Keeping in line with Chu’s promises, Salazar told tribal leaders that his department will assist tribes in their efforts to harness solar and wind energy, as well as in exploring geothermal resources for economic development.

“We must make sure Native American communities are participants and beneficiaries of the new virtual energy revolution. As we move forward, Indian country should not be left behind.”

In a later speech the same day, Salazar spoke to the Council of Energy Resource Tribes summit on Native energy development. He noted that tribal lands have major resources for renewable energy as well as rich sources of conventional fossil fuels.

“Indian country offers some of the premier wind energy sites in the United States. I look forward to exploring with tribes the potential for wind, geothermal, biomass and solar energy development that exists on those lands.”

The Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development has identified 77 reservations that possess commercial-scale wind resources and the ability to support viable wind-based economies. Forty of these are in states that have enacted policies requiring utilities to purchase a percentage of their power from renewable sources.

Jackson discussed a few key energy and environmental issues at the NCAI meeting as well. She said it is important that tribal communities affected by environmental degradation are heard from.

She elaborated in an interview with Indian Country Today after her speech that President Obama is against a proposed nuclear waste storage site in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, which some Western tribes have opposed for spiritual and health reasons.

She said the EPA should be “first and foremost” in assisting tribal leaders in understanding the possible health impacts from mining and other polluting sources near reservations.

Jackson noted, too, that tribal leaders have long been concerned that the EPA’s tribal division is located within its water division.

“It’s time to move the location of that office to give it more of a crosscutting role in the agency. It’s something that I intend to address very soon. I am certainly willing to move it. I think that the most important question is where it moves to, and that’s a decision that I would like to make once we have our full staff in place.”

Jackson also pledged to hold a summit with tribes in the fall that will focus on improving tribal programs and agency responses to climate change.

Beyond energy and the environment, Munoz assured attendees that the Obama administration will work with tribes on a government-to-government basis.

“It’s a time of great promises and extraordinary challenges. You know what works and doesn’t work in your own community. We look forward to working with tribal leaders and NCAI to hear your concerns.”

DURANGO, CO (2009-03-05)
HOST LEAD: Opponents of the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant in Northwest New Mexico are claiming another victory.
But the other side says "not so fast."
KSUT's Victor Locke reports.

VICTOR: A 12 year old environmental impact statement, or EIS, on a 470 mile long high voltage electrical transmission line across the Navajo Reservation has been sent back to the Bureau of Land Management for review.

The Navajo Transmission Project, or NTP, would run from Navajo land in Northwest New Mexico to Flagstaff, to send power to Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas and other areas west.

It's believed most of that power would come from the proposed 3 billion dollar, 15-hundred megawatt Desert Rock Power Plant proposed to be built Southwest of Farmington.

Environmental groups are battling both Desert Rock and the Transmission Line project.

Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance says one of their concerns is that the two projects have been considered separately.
EISENFELD: BY SEGMENTING OUT THESE TWO PROJECTS, THAT ARE PART OF A BIGGER ACTION, THE IMPACTS ARE NEVER PROPERLY ANALYZED.
Eisenfeld says this decision directly impacts the viability of the Desert Rock plant.

EISENFELD: DINE POWER AND SITHE HAVE BEEN HANGING THEIR HAT ON THE IDEA THAT IF THEY WANTED TO GET DESERT ROCK ONLINE SOMEWHERE IN THE TIME FRAME OF 2012 TO 2015 THEY'D HAVE TO BE BUILDING THAT TRANSMISSION LINE RIGHT NOW. THIS THROWS A BIG CURVE INTO ANY OF THEIR ATTEMPTS TO SECURE FUNDING, ANY OF THEIR ATTEMPTS TO GET CONTRACTS WITH UTILITIES. WE DON'T THINK IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.

But Frank Maisano, a spokesman for Desert Rock's developers Sithe Global, disagrees, charging the opponents are overstating the importance of the NTP ruling.
MAISANO: THIS IS ABOUT THE TENTH BEGINNING OF THE END WE'VE HAD IN THE LAST YEAR, OR IT MAY BE TWO YEARS, REGARDING THIS PROJECT ACCORDING TO SAN JUAN CITIZEN'S ALLIANCE.

He says Sithe Global actually expected the 12 year old NTP EIS to face another review, what he calls a simple update.
MAISANO: WE CAUTIONED BLM AND BIA EARLY ON, THAT THIS COULD HAPPEN BECAUSE THE INFORMATION IN THE EIS WAS RATHER OLD GIVEN THAT IT WAS FROM 1997 TO 1998, SO IT'S NOT UNEXPECTED TO US THAT THIS ACTION IS OCCURING, AND AGAIN WE'RE HOPEFUL THAT THE AGENCY WILL ACT SWIFTLY TO UPDATE THE NTP'S DATA , WHICH IS EASILY UPDATABLE, APPARENTLY, ACCORDING TO MANY OF THE EXPERTS THAT I'VE TALKED TO ON THIS ISSUE.

Eisenfeld says it may not be that simple.
EISENFELD: THIS SORT OF REINITIATES THE WHOLE PROCEDURAL PROCESS. WE WOULD ARGUE THAT THE ENTIRE PROJECT NEEDS TO BE SCOPED AGAIN, THAT THE ALTERNATIVES HAVE TO BE DEVELOPED, THAT THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT HAS TO BE RE-WRITTEN, AND WE'VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR MANY YEARS NOW.

Those involved will now have to argue about how much the Navajo Transmission Project EIS needs to be reworked.

Eisenfeld says opponents feel they hold the political upper hand right now.
EISENFELD: WE REALLY THINK THAT GIVEN THE CHANGE IN ADMINISTRATION THAT THESE PROJECTS ARE GOING TO BE EVALUATED DIFFERENTLY.
Just one week ago, the Navajo Nation's tribal council approved rights of way for the transmission line project, by an overwhelming 71-8 vote.

From KSUT, Four Corners Public Radio, I'm Victor Locke.
© Copyright 2009, ksut

to listen:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/ksut/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1477466§ionID=1

Gallup Independent
March 3, 2009
By Kathy Helms

Dine Bureau

WINDOW ROCK – Dine Power Authority and Desert Rock Energy Co. have filed separate motions in U.S. District Court in Texas against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and former Administrator Stephen L. Johnson seeking the award of attorney fees in connection with the issuance of an air permit for the Desert Rock Energy Project.

Douglas MacCourt of Ater Wynne law firm of Portland, Ore., attorney for DPA, said the claim is part of the underlying suit filed in 2008 on which they prevailed. “The EPA is compelled under federal law to pay the prevailing parties their attorney’s fees, and so those parties include Sithe’s attorneys and DPA’s attorney,” he said.

Sithe Global Power’s Desert Rock Energy Co. is represented by attorneys with Bracewell & Giuliani, a prominent international law firm with more than 450 lawyers in Texas, New York, Washington, Connecticut, Dubai, Kazakhstan and London.

“We won the suit, and the suit had one issue,” MacCourt said. “Under the Clean Air Act, EPA was required to issue a final permit within 12 months of determining that the application for the permit was deemed administratively complete. They made that determination way back in 2004. They dragged their feet until we had to sue them.”

The initial permit application was submitted to EPA in February 2004. EPA notified the applicant in May 2004 that the permit was complete. DPA filed suit nearly four years later. By law, EPA should have issued the PSD permit for the project no later than May 21, 2005, according to the claim.

“We brought President (Joe) Shirley to Washington, D.C. to meet with the EPA administrator. Finally, filing suit got them to issue the permit. Because we won and that was the only claim, federal law entitles us to recover our attorney’s fees,” MacCourt said, adding that he didn’t have the final figure.

DPA is seeking a reduced amount of $83,844 associated with the underlying claims and $25,636 associated with filing the fee petition, for at total $109,521. The amount requested for filing the claim extends only through Jan. 30 and could increase depending on whether there is additional litigation.

According to the motion filed Feb. 20 by MacCourt on behalf of EPA, despite the fact that DPA has substantially reduced the amount of the incurred attorney fees it seeks from EPA, the federal agency has refused to reimburse them.

“EPA will argue that this litigation was simple and that DPA’s fees are excessive,” MacCourt wrote. “Defendants are wrong on both on both counts.” Only after filing suit did EPA act n the Clean Air permit. The parties negotiated and lodged with the court a consent decree in which DPA required the federal agency to act on the permit” within a very short window of time. The fact that the parties ultimately did not present the consent decree to the court for signature is irrelevant,” he wrote.

After Wynne attorneys and legal staff spent a total of 471 hours on the underlying claims, totaling $147,895 at the normal 2008 billing rates. MacCourt deducted 200 hours of his own time, representing a reduction of $64,011 at his standard $315-an-hour rate.

Bracewell and Giuliani attorney M. Coy Connelly gave his clients a discount rate of $405 an hour from his $450/hour standard, according to MacCourt’s declaration.

“We worked with the government to try to arrive at a reasonable number, unfortunately we were not able to reach a consensus in settling that, so we had to file the petitions. Honestly, I’m confident that we will probably settle it without having to go to the extra expense, including the federal government’s expense of having to go down to Texas and litigate the lawsuit, but if we do, we’re very prepared to prevail,” MacCourt said. “The EPA and the federal government should abide by law.”

March 4, 2009
Victor Merina

Published on Reznet News (http://www.reznetnews.org)

The nation's top environmental official sought to reassure tribal governments and Native communities that their voices will help shape environmental policies in the Obama administration as she announced plans for a fall summit that will bring tribal leaders to Washington.

Lisa Jackson, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency [5], told the National Congress of American Indians [6] that "the EPA is back on the job" and fully aware of the challenges that affect tribal communities.

"Right now, hazardous waste sites and open dumps are rampant in tribal lands exposing their residents to dangerous toxins and possible contamination of land and water," she said in her prepared remarks.

"Many tribal lands, economies and cultures are being threatened by climate change, from the loss of fish habitats in our rivers and streams to eroding shorelines that are threatening native Alaskan villages," she added. "And in the face of these needs, less than 5 percent of tribes actually implement federal environmental programs."

In urging tribal representatives to join federal efforts, Jackson said the Obama administration is determined to reach out to the Native community as part of an "EPA-Tribal partnership" that will include a Tribal Leaders Summit in the fall to go with additional funding for drinking water and wastewater facilities and more "green jobs" in Indian Country.

Enthusiastic Response

That news drew an enthusiastic response from those in attendance along with others who could not be in Washington for the speech but were aware of Jackson's remarks.

"I think there's a real emphasis on tribal inclusion in national policy and stepping up to address those issues that have languished over the last several years," said Jerry Pardilla, executive director of the Albuquerque-based National Tribal Environmental Council [2], a consortium of 184 tribes.

Pardilla, a member of Maine's Penobscot Nation [7], said he was heartened by Jackson's words. He was also pleased with her disclosure that she will consider moving the American Indian Environmental Office [3] from the EPA's Office of Water, where it has historically resided, to a more prominent place in the administrator's office or as an independent program.

"That would be tremendously important so that we're not pigeonholed in one environmental medium," said Pardilla, who added the change also would enable tribal leaders to have more influence in the administration.

"These are encouraging signs," he said of the proposals, "but only time will tell."

Jackson, the first African American to head the EPA, said she recognizes the desire - and necessity - for tribal leaders to be heard on environmental issues.

Strong Indian Office

In a telephone interview from Washington following her speech, the 46-year-old administrator said Native communities are among those that experience environmental problems yet are frustrated because tribal leaders are often missing from the policy-making table.

Asked whether her use of the phrase "the EPA is back on the job" meant that the agency has neglected tribes in the past, Jackson dismissed that notion and said that the EPA has "one of the stronger, if not the strongest, Indian office across the federal government."

At the same time, she acknowledged that more intensified effort is needed to reach Native people.

"The phrase that I've been using is that part of EPA's credibility is about reaching out to communities who may have not felt they always had a seat at our table or seen themselves reflected in our agency," she said.

"There's certainly been some good work done already with our tribal program, but we can do more," Jackson said in the interview. "And, so, yes, this is very much about not only giving a seat at the table but, in the case of the EPA, a spot on the agenda. We want to hear voices. We want active and robust dialogue."

Jackson, who holds degrees in chemical engineering from Tulane and Princeton universities, worked as a career employee at EPA for 15 years and was head of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection when President Obama called her to Washington.

Hurricane Damage Suffered by Tribes

A native of New Orleans, Jackson said she was aware of the hurricane damage suffered by Louisiana tribes like the United Houma Nation in the aftermath of Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike — and the soil erosion and loss of the wetlands in the region.

"As you lose the wetlands and land, you lose a lot more than just swampland," she said. "Those communities were in the eye of the storm in every possible way."

As head of the EPA, Jackson also said she would be reviewing the clean-up plan for uranium sites on Navajo land [4]. Her agency and the Navajo EPA, along with four other federal departments, have joined to clean up 50 years of uranium contamination on the Navajo Nation from abandoned mines.

"It's still a little early for me to have a position," she said. "Obviously, it's significant enough that we would like to keep an eye on it."

In addressing the NCAI contingent, Jackson emphasized that science will be "the backbone" for all EPA programs and that the rule of law will shape any action she takes as administrator. When asked about the link between environmental concerns and the religious and spiritual beliefs that many Natives hold, Jackson said she also understood that connection.

"Like any set of spiritual or religious beliefs, those inform opinions and also inform decision making," she said.

"What EPA has to do is to work through tribal governments to make policy and those policies need to reflect the full panoply of thinking on both sides of the table, between both our governments. And so the pledge is that we will treat an independent government which is informed by a set of cultural and spiritual beliefs as a government.

"My own personal environmentalism is informed by my religious beliefs," Jackson added. "I believe quite firmly that I have a moral obligation to protect the planet. That informs me and moves me forward but is not the only consideration in [the] manifestation of policy."

Merina reported from Los Angeles.
Copyright © 2009 Reznet.

Victor Merina is reznet's senior correspondent and special projects editor. A former Los Angeles Times investigative reporter and finalist for the Pulitizer Prize, he also is a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism. Merina is a visiting faculty member at The Poynter Institute, where he leads seminars on cross-cultural reporting and writing about race.

Feds reconsider Navajo power line decision

Associated Press - March 7, 2009 10:25 AM ET

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is reconsidering a decision approving a power line expected to carry energy from the Navajo Nation to areas across the Southwest.

The federal agency granted a right-of-way easement for a 3.4-mile stretch of the line near Shiprock, N.M., in September.

But a group of environmentalists later appealed. They say the bureau relied on an outdated environmental analysis and that the analysis should include both the transmission line and a proposed coal-fired power plant because the two projects would go hand in hand.

Before a Department of Interior panel decided the matter, the BLM asked that its decision be set aside so that it could reconsider whether the environmental analysis was adequate.

Environmentalists have fought the Desert Rock power plant every step of the way and claim victory in the BLM's decision.

Electricity generated from the $3 billion, 1,500-megawatt power plant to be built on the Navajo Nation south of Farmington, N.M., would move through parts of the transmission line.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

March 5, 2009

Contact:
Matt Kenna, Western Environmental Law Center, kenna@westernlaw.org
(970) 385-6941
Mike Eisenfeld, San Juan Citizens Alliance, mike@sanjuancitizens.org
(505) 360-8994

Conservationists Convince Government to Reconsider Transmission Line for Desert Rock Power Plant.
Interior Boards of Land Appeals decision stalls the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant.

ARLINGTON, VA. — The Interior Board of Land Appeals granted (PDF) the Western Environmental Law Center’s request to reconsider the Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the Navajo Transmission Project (“NTP”). Without the NTP, the proposed Desert Rock coal- fired power plant in New Mexico, designed to provide power to Phoenix and Las Vegas, cannot be built.

“This decision recognizes that the approval failed to consider the impacts that the transmission line and a new coal-fired power plant would have on the health of people living in the Four Corners region, threatened and endangered species in the path of the transmission line, and not least of all the substantial contribution the power plant would have on global warming,” said Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) attorney Matt Kenna of Durango, CO, who handled the appeal. WELC is representing Diné CARE, a Navajo Nation conservation group, as well as the San Juan Citizens Alliance, Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity.

The order came after the Bureau of Land Management agreed with WELC that its approval of the NTP was no longer valid. The Interior Board of Indian Appeals is expected to issue a similar order shortly, since the Bureau of Indian Affairs has made a similar request to vacate and remand its decision approving the NTP on Indian lands.

Approvals of the NTP were based on environmental studies completed in
1997 when the transmission line would just facilitate transmission efficiency for existing power plants, before the Desert Rock power plant was even conceived. As such, the studies failed to assess the impacts of the proposed power plant which is the sole reason for building the NTP now.

“Whether this indicates that the government is completely rethinking the power plant in light of concerns over global warming and severe local air quality problems from ozone and mercury pollution, which would greatly increase with a new coal-fired power plant, or merely indicates the government’s acknowledgment that its environmental studies completely ignored the most devastating impacts of the power line and power plant, it is good news for the health of the people of the Navajo Nation, the Four Corners region, and the rest of the world,” Kenna said.

Background

The Navajo Transmission Project would be a 500 kilovolt, 470-mile power line stretching from near Farmington, New Mexico to near Las Vegas, Nevada. Although originally conceived and approved in 1997 to increase the efficiency and capacity of power transmission from the Four Corners to markets in the southwest, the need did not materialize and the project was shelved.

Fast forward 10 years, the NTP is now back on the drawing board to transmit the energy from the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant to Phoenix and Las Vegas. Until WELC’s victory, the transmission line would have been built based on an environmental impact statement completed more than a decade ago.

The Desert Rock power plant would be a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant built on the Navajo Nation, within the borders of San Juan County in northwest New Mexico, near the site of several other coal-fired power plants in the region. Coal-fired power plants spew mercury into the air and contribute to ground-level ozone pollution.
San Juan County was recently deemed “non-attainment” for excessive ozone pollution coming from the existing power plants and oil and gas development in the region.

Ground-level ozone damages lung tissue and is linked to premature death, penetrating deeply into sensitive parts of the lungs and can cause or worsen respiratory disease such as emphysema and bronchitis, and aggravate heart disease. It is especially harmful to children and people with respiratory problems such as asthma. The New Mexico Department of Health recently found that “ozone concentrations in San Juan County during 2000-2003 were [already] higher than the previous three years and were among the highest among EPA regional sites in the Southwest including Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas,” and “was associated with asthma-related medical visits. The distribution of ozone concentrations was similar to that observed in many large cities.”

According to a recent study, “Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that threatens the development of fetuses and children and contributes to the risk of heart disease. A senior EPA scientist estimates that 630,000 newborns in the United States each year have unsafe mercury levels in their blood. Coal-fired power plants account for about 40% of mercury air pollution in the United States and are the nation's largest source of human-produced mercury air pollution. Power plants in the interior West emit about 10,000 pounds of mercury per year.” “[I]n 2003, the highest annual precipitation mercury concentration in the nation was [already] observed in New Mexico. The Colorado monitoring site at Mesa Verde National Park [in the Desert Rock airshed] recorded the third highest concentration in the country. A number of the region's lakes and reservoirs also suffer from mercury fish consumption advisories. The water bodies with protective warnings range from Lake Mary in northern Arizona to the McPhee, Narranguinnep, and Navajo reservoirs in southwestern Colorado.”

Global warming is a problem already well-known to the public, and Desert Rock would contribute significantly to this problem that threatens the world.

The Western Environmental Law Center (“WELC”) is a nonprofit public interest law firm that works to protect and restore western wildlands and advocates for a healthy environment on behalf of communities throughout the West.

###



*****
Jackie Marlette
Development Coordinator
Western Environmental Law Center
1216 Lincoln Street
Eugene, OR 97401
ph: 541-485-2471 ex. 111
fax: 541-485-2457
marlette@westernlaw.org
www.westernlaw.org

The Western Environmental Law Center is a non-profit public interest environmental law firm that works to protect and restore Western wildlands and advocates for a healthy environment on behalf of communities throughout the West.

The vote by Navajo Council Delegates on February 27, 2009

The motioning parties were:
Lawrence Platero (Tohajiilee), and seconding motion was
Phil Harrison (Red Valley/Cove).

Voting NO were:

Lorenzo Bedonie (Hard Rock), Elmer Begay (Dilkon), Jerry Bodie (Sanostee),
Lorenzo Curley (Lupton/New Lands), Hope MacDonald Lone Tree
(TohNaneesDizi/Coalmine Canyon), Raymond Maxx (TohNaneesDizi/Coalmine Canyon), Ida Nelson (Red Rock), and Leonard Tsosie (Torreon/Pueblo Pintado).

Council Delegates voting for Sithe Global/Blackstone/DPA against the Navajo people:

Evelyn Acothley (Bodaway-Gap/Cameron/Coppermine)
Larry Anderson, Sr. (Fort Defiance)
Leonard Anthony (Shiprock)
George Apachito (Alamo)
George Arthur (T'iistoh Bikaad/San Juan/Nenanezad)
Pete Ken Atcitty (Shiprock)
Andy R. Ayze (Chinle)
Harriett K. Becenti (Manuelito/Rock Springs/Tseyatoh)
Kee Allen Begay, Jr. (Many Farms/Round Rock)
Mel Begay (Coyote Canyon/Mexican Springs)
Omer Begay, Jr. (Cornfields/Greasewood Springs/Klagetoh/Wide Ruins)
Sampson Begay (Jeddito/Steamboat/Low Mountain)
Willie Begay (Chilchinbeto/Kayenta)
Nelson Begaye (Lukachukai/Tsaile/Wheatfields)
Katherine Benally (Dennehotso)
Ralph Bennett (Crystal/Red Lake/Sawmill)
Ray Berchman (Oak Springs/St. Michaels)
Leonard Chee (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake)
Harry H. Clark (Chinle)
Harry Claw (Chinle)
Jack Colorado (Bodaway-Gap/Cameron/Coppermine)
Benjamin Curley (Kinlichee/Ganado)
Charles Damon (Baahaali/Church Rock)
Herman Daniels, Sr. (Oljato)
Leslie Dele (Tonalea)
Roy B. Dempsey (Oak Springs/St. Michaels)
Cecil Frank Eriacho (Ramah)
Davis Filfred (Mexican Water/Aneth/Red Mesa)
Jerry Freddie (Dilcon/Teesto)
Tim Goodluck (Houck/Lupton/Nahata Dziil)
Nelson Gorman, Jr. (Chinle)
Curran Hannon (Oak Springs/St. Michaels)
Orlanda Smith-Hodge (Cornfields/Greasewood Springs/Klagetoh/Wide Ruins)
Harry Hubbard (Becenti/Lake Valley/Standing Rock/White Rock)
Lee Jack, Sr. (Whitecone/Indian Wells)
Edward V. Jim, Sr. (Greyhills/Sheepsprings/Newcomb)
Raymond Joe (Tachee/Blue Gap/Whippoorwill)
Rex Lee Jim (Rock Point)
Norman John II (Twin Lakes)
Amos F. Johnson (Forest Lake)
Hoskie Kee (Littlewater/Baca-Prewitt/Casamero Lake)
Ervin M. Keeswood, Sr. (Tse Daa Kaan)
Tom Lapahe (Tachee/Blue Gap/Whippoorwill)
Roy Laughter (Chilchinbeto/Kayenta)
Joe M. Lee (Chichiltah)
Woody Lee (Sweetwater)
Preston McCabe Sr. (Hardrock/Pinon)
Lena Manheimer (Ts'ah Bii Kin/Navajo Mountain)
Kee Yazzie Mann (Kaibeto)
Kenneth Maryboy (Mexican Water/Aneth/Red Mesa)
Elmer L. Milford (Fort Defiance)
Lawrence T. Morgan (Iyanbito/Pinedale)
Herman R. Morris (Naschitti/Tohatchi)
Johnny Naize (Tselani/Cottonwood/Nazlini)
Larry Noble (Jeddito/Steamboat/Low Mountain)
Francis Redhouse (Teecnospos)
David B. Rico (Pueblo Pintado/Torreon/Whitehorse Lake)
David Shondee (Chilchinbeto/Kayenta)
Danny Simpson (Huerfano)
Roscoe D. Smith (Crystal/Red Lake/Sawmill)
Leonard Teller (Lukachukai/Tsaile/Wheatfields)
GloJean Todacheene (Shiprock)
David L. Tom (Beclabito/Gadiiahi)
Young Jeff Tom (Mariano Lake/Smith Lake)
Willie Tracey, Jr. (Ganado/Kinlichee)
Tommy Tsosie (LeChee)
Elbert R. Wheeler (Many Farms/Round Rock)
Harry J. Willeto (Nageezi/Ojo Encino/Counselor)
Harry Williams, Sr. (Coalmine Canyon/Toh Nanees Dizi)
Ernest D. Yazzie, Jr. (Baahaali/Church Rock)
Peterson B. Yazzie (Naschitti/Tohatchi)

Not voting (or absent) were:
Lorenzo Bates (UpperFruitland), Alice Benally (Crownpoint/Nahodishgish), Phil Harrison (Red Valley/Cove), Jonathan Nez (Shonto), Bobby Robbins ((Coalmine Canyon/Toh Nanees Dizi), Thomas Walker (Birdsprings/Leupp/Tolani Lake), Harold Wauneka (Fort Defiance), and Edmund Yazzie (Thoreau).

The Navajo Times March 5, 2009

The paid advertisement in the Navajo Times (Feb. 26, 2009) by Steven C. Begay and Dirk Straussfeld, not only shows that Begay is the leading Shirley administration victim of anti-science syndrome, he is the Typhoid Mary of ASS.

The Diné Power Authority's GM displays a complete disconnect from current climate science. Begay claims, "The U.S. EPA has said the proposed emissions levels appear to be the lowest ever applied for anywhere in the country for a pulverized-coal plant of its size using existing technology."

Begay dismisses the science-based warnings of the U.S. EPA, in their latest report (July 2008), "Analyses and Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems." Written by scientists, the document acknowledges that the effects of global warming are already evident and will become more evident in the next 50 years.

The report also affirms parts of a Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 report that spelled in detail the serious nature of climate change.

The U.S. EPA was blunt, saying climate change will pose "substantial" threats to the health and well-being of every American and could widen the divide between people who can adapt to a more hostile environment and society's elderly, the poor, children, and people with chronic medical conditions.

The authors advise adapting to the changes and suggest that city, state, and federal leaders begin a serious discussion about long-term sustainability.

Begay claims, "Not only will Desert Rock provide jobs, lifestyle, and financial opportunities for the Navajo people, it is also an environmental success story." Begay makes his prediction for "environmental success" definitive.

The IPCC also provides a definitive assessment of where we are with climate, but that science continues to evolve. And in particular, we've seen rapid increase in knowledge in two important areas: forcing - how hard we're pushing on the climate system - and feedbacks - what we expect the earth system to do in response to this harder forcing.

Chris Field, co-chair of Working Group 2 of the IPCC, warns that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rising more rapidly than expected in recent years. Field says the current trajectory of climate change is now much worse than the IPCC 2007 had originally projected.

On Feb. 28th, Field told a Senate panel droughts caused by global warming could make parts of the American Southwest dangerous to live in. The MIT Joint Program on Science and Policy of Global Change in their report (Jan 2009), "Probabilistic Forecast for 21st Century Climate Based on Uncertainties in Emissions (without Policy) and Climate Parameters," has doubled the median surface warming in years 2091-2100 to 5.1 C as compared to 2.4 C in the earlier study.

In the title of the report "(without Policy)" means doing the business as usual with CO2 emissions and the Desert Rock Energy Project as proposed is going to do just that. The Navajo Nation Council on Feb. 27 voted 71-8 to approve another right-of-way easement for a proposed Desert Rock Energy Project.

Leaders have no excuse - they are elected to lead and to protect the public and its best interests. Leaders have at their disposal the best scientific organizations in the world, such as the American Association for the Advancement Science and the United States National Academy of Sciences to help them make decisions.

There is a wide gap between what is understood about global warming by the relevant scientific community and what is known by the public and policymakers. Unfortunately, the wide gap is a chasm for the NNC members.

The 71 NNC members who voted to approve the final easement do not realize that the Shirley administration's perceived economic benefits of the DREP will likely last for about two generations (40-45 years) while at the same time increasing the threat of climate change related hardships for 50 generations.

Susan Solomon, ozone hole luminary and Nobel Prize winning chair of IPCC, and her colleagues, have just published a paper entitled "Irreversible climate change because of carbon dioxide emissions" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper reads: "The severity of damaging human-induced climate change depends not only on the magnitude of the change but also on the potential for irreversibility."

This paper shows that the climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop. Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase from current levels near 385 parts per million by volume to a peak of 450-600 over the coming century are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the "dust bowl" era and inexorable sea level rise.

When Steve Owens, the Western Climate Initiative, co-chair, spoke to the Navajo Nation Council (Navajo Times, Jan. 31, 2008) he was given the "thanks, but no thanks."

E. Keeswood should know that the same United Nations he referenced also issued to world governments the IPCC reports - relevant information for the understanding of the risk/danger of human-induced climate change.

Instead of talking up sovereignty and his view of Navajo public opinion, he should have addressed why the Navajo Nation does not have a climate change policy and why we do not need one.

Keeswood and others in the council do not understand that climate change is not something in the future. It's already here. And is a clear and present danger.

Glen Manygoats
Flagstaff, Ariz.

The Durango Telegraph - Volume 8, No. 9, March 5, 2009 - The Independent Weekly Line on Durango and Beyond

Shifts in Washington blow into Four Corners
by Will Sands

The future of coal-fired power is looking murkier by the moment. Clean air advocates won several recent victories in Washington, D.C. – victories that promise to reverberate through the Four Corners. Yet in spite of the likelihood of more and tighter regulations, the proposed Desert Rock Power Plant is forging ahead.

Based on a petition and a U.S. Supreme Court mandate, the Environmental Protection Agency recently started changing course on coal-fired power. In late February, the agency’s new administrator, Lisa Jackson, offered to reconsider whether carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Then last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has been negligent by failing to reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

The news was significant for the Four Corners, which is already home to three coal-fired powers plants – two of which have been named among the nation’s dirtiest – and the location of choice for the massive Desert Rock Power Plant. With New Mexico’s San Juan County earning recent marks for ozone pollution (see sidebar) and high mercury levels tainting Four Corners rivers and lakes, the news from Washington has significant local ramifications.

Mike Eisenfeld, New Mexico coordinator for San Juan Citizens Alliance, noted that major changes could be coming for the local airshed. “Really what this is pointing toward is that new coal-fired power plants are going to have to evaluate technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “What that means for the Four Corners is that Desert Rock will be going back to the drawing board.”

The EPA is still many steps away from regulating carbon emissions, however. Jackson’s late February announcement essentially overruled a Bush administration memo that declared the EPA would not and had no responsibility to regulate carbon emissions. While the decision could mark the first step toward limits on greenhouse gases, a great deal of study and evaluation remains.

“EPA’s fundamental mission is to protect human health and the environment, and we intend to do just that,” Jackson said.

Sithe Global, the company partnering with the Navajo Nation to build Desert Rock southwest of Farmington, takes a different view of the announcement. Like he has before, Jeff Holmstead, an attorney for Desert Rock and former EPA Air Administrator, countered that the announcement was expected.

“It’s a clever procedural move that allows the new administration to distance itself from the Bush administration without actually changing anything about how carbon dioxide is regulated,” he said.

Whether the greenhouse gas is regulated or not will depend on a lengthy public process, and Desert Rock backers are optimistic about the outcome of such a process. “Coming up with a new framework to regulate carbon dioxide will be a huge challenge, unless the new administration wants to force every significant construction project in the U.S. to stop work until they go through a years-long process to get a Clean Air Act permit,” Holmstead said.

However, Desert Rock backers may be exuding false confidence, according to the Sierra Club, the group that petitioned Jackson to overturn the Bush administration ruling. David Bookbinder, Chief Climate Counsel for the Sierra Club, noted that the announcement coupled with the Supreme Court ruling make the future of new coal-fired power plants especially uncertain. Add unstable national and international economies to the mix, and Desert Rock looks more and more like a long shot.

“The announcement should cast significant further doubt on the approximately 100 coal-fired power plants that the industry is trying to rush through the permitting process without any limits on carbon dioxide,” Bookbinder said. “New coal plants were already a bad bet for investors and ratepayers, and these decisions make them an even bigger gamble.”

With these changing tides in mind, Eisenfeld questioned the posturing from Desert Rock. Instead, he pointed to the recent memo and ruling and cited a mandate for major changes in the Four Corners energy landscape.

“We think that by the time everything is tallied up, Desert Rock is going to price itself out of the market,” he said. “This marks the beginning of a time when this region should be exploring some alternatives and working to clean up its existing huge sources of pollution.” •

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Dooda Desert Rock has filed a discrimination complaint against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its alleged failure to protect the health of Navajo residents in the Shiprock area.

The complaint was filed Feb. 24 with EPA’s Office of Civil Rights. A letter also was sent Monday to the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

According to Dooda attorney James W. Zion of Albuquerque, Article 14 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination provides that a signer (a “state”) can agree to allow private complaints to the committee.

“The U.S. has not signed on to that, so we can’t make a ‘complaint’ as such,” Zion said. “However, the committee does have a follow-up procedure where the monitor — a member of the committee called a ‘rapporteur’ — can consider this information.”

Dooda completed its testimony to EPA Feb. 21 on whether the federal agency should regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant and put caps on it when considering a permit for the proposed Desert Rock power plant.

“Research for the testimony showed that the Environmental Protection Agency was aware of a study that showed that Shiprock residents seek medical attention for respiratory problems in the general area of the present Four Comers Power Plant and San Juan Generating Station at five times the rate of other people in the area,” Dooda president Elouise Brown said.

“Given the fact that the EPA failed to do anything about its knowledge of discrimination against Navajos by failure to regulate current emissions and in granting a permit for the Desert Rock plant, Dooda Desert Rock identified 18 Navajos who complain of breathing problems to make a civil rights complaint. Others will be identified for a civil rights investigation,” Brown said.

In his letter to the U.N. committee, Zion said it is likely that when permits were granted for the Four Corners Power Plant, that its proponents and EPA knew or should have known that winter inversions drop pollution in the Shiprock area, and that a geological feature, known as the Hogback, pulls down the plume from the plant.

“The only remedy my clients have in the United States is to ask the potential offender, the EPA, to find that the situation is discriminatory and for it to offer adequate remedies. We do not know if that is possible or not.

“The current law is that private individuals cannot bring actions to enforce civil rights provisions on discrimination by the federal government, or its sanctioning of discrimination by others, and there must be proof of an intent to discriminate.

We feel that a ‘knew or should have known’ standard applies ...”

Zion said that while the U.N. committee “kind of recognized abusive development, it didn’t go far enough,” limiting its recognition to areas of spiritual and cultural significance.

“The problem is where government sanctions and approves abusive and harmful development, even where it is approved by an indigenous government,” Zion wrote.

“The situation my clients complain of is pollution that causes Navajos who live in the Shiprock area to seek medical attention for respiratory ailments at rates that range from five times an average rate in general, to 10 times the average for children and the aging.”

Zion proposed consideration of the matter by the special rapporteur and the U.N. committee when the next report is due on U.S. compliance with the International Convention.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Gallup Independent
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., was congratulated by dozens of Navajo Nation Council delegates shortly after the Council voted Friday, 71-8, to approve right of way legislation for the Desert Rock Energy Project.

“I’m very happy and elated that the Nation’s council voted the way they did,” Shirley said. “That means we can continue to move forward on a massive project that we started a long time ago.”

The president said the vote reiterates the Navajo people’s desire to see the Desert Rock project built because it will bring needed jobs to the people, revenues to the Nation, and equity by using the Navajo Nation’s own resources of land, water, coal and workers.

He said the vote also sends a positive message to Washington. In his Tuesday address to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama said the United States would invest $15 billion a year to develop energy technologies that included clean coal.

Shirley said with the Navajo Nation’s commitment to a power plant as advanced as Desert Rock, he believed the Navajo Nation could become part of Obama’s strategy.

“I think we have every chance in the world to tap into part of that to look at carbon capture and carbon sequestration,” he said. “I think this plant is to be built with it in mind that if the technology comes around, they’ll put it on. So I’m very happy that President Obama is talking clean coal technology, using that to continue to create energy, jobs and revenues.”

Doug MacCourt of the Ater Wynne law firm in Portland, Ore., which represents DPA, called it “a great day for the Navajo Nation.”

“What this is really all about is changing the way energy projects are built in Indian Country and outside of Indian Country. We’ve structured the business deal so we comply with preference in employment, preference in contracting. It is all designed to shift the way these power plants used to be built,” MacCourt said.

When DPA interviewed companies that had the capacity to build a project like Desert Rock, it had three criteria. The company had to have a background in building low-emission, high-tech coal plants; it needed a strong financial partner with the ability to bring $3.5 billion to the project; and it needed to be able to respect tribal courts, tribal laws and write that into the contract, he said.

The Blackstone Group, which owns approximately 80 percent of Sithe Global, developer of the proposed plant along with DPA, reported Friday that it will not pay out a quarterly dividend to investors. Blackstone posted net losses of $415.2 million in the fourth quarter compared to $170 million the previous year.

Where's the toughest place in the U,S. to build a coal-fired
power plant? The Navajo know.

Christopher Helman

FoRBES MARCH1G.2oo9

Tue Mar 3, 2009 6:54am EST

(Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) Co-founder and Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman's pay fell 99 percent in 2008, a year that saw the private-equity firm post a $1.33 billion loss.

Schwarzman -- who had celebrated his 60th birthday with a $3 million party in 2007 -- did not receive any cash compensation for 2008 other than a base salary of $350,000.

Co-founder Peter Peterson, a former U.S. secretary of commerce who retired from Blackstone last year, also took a more than 99 percent pay cut and received a base salary of $350,000 for the year, according to a regulatory filing.

Cash compensation of President and Chief Operating Officer Hamilton James, Vice Chairman Tomilson Hill and former Chief Financial Officer Michael Puglisi declined by 73 percent, 67 percent and 76 percent, respectively.

Blackstone has been hammered by the financial crisis and shutdown of the credit markets. A revival in leverage is vital for the New York-based firm to be able to do deals of any significant scale and sell off current investments.

Blackstone shares have fallen to a fraction of their June 2007 initial public offering price of $31 as the financial crisis hit and access to leverage shrank. The shares closed at $4.77 Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Gallup Independent
Monday March 2, 2009

Desert Rock right of way passes Council in hard-won victory

The Navajo Nation Council voted 71-8 for legislation to pass rights of way for the Desert Rock Power Plant at the council chambers on Friday in Window Rock, Ariz.

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Navajo Nation Council handed President Joe Shirley Jr. a victory Friday by approving rights of way legislation for the Desert Rock power plant, 71-8, with a directive that all 110 chapters receive 15 percent of any money that would go into the general fund as a result of the rights of way.

The victory did not come easy, however. Delegate Leonard Tsosie offered four amendments, the first dealing with sovereign immunity. In the interest of protecting the Nation’s sovereignty, Tsosie’s amendment would have made it mandatory that any entities assigned rights of way by the energy company first would have to go before Council, which then would decide a limited waiver of sovereign immunity.

The first amendment originally passed, 39-36, by simple majority vote. A second amendment which would have provided the Nation receive the full $11 million fee for the rights of way or have the amount applied toward partial ownership of the plant, rather than the $3.5 million agreed to, failed 23-53.

An amendment calling for the president to negotiate the use of power generated from Desert Rock for the benefit of Navajo people and businesses in a manner subject to the approval of Council, failed 22-56. The fourth amendment which called for Desert Rock and Diné Power Authority to share revenues with the Nation from any potential sale of carbon credits failed, 29-47, after a number of delegates said that such a matter should be negotiated later in separate legislation.

After Tsosie’s first amendment passed, Nathan Plagens of Sithe Global/Desert Rock Energy Co., slapped his hat on his head and walked out of the chamber, obviously disappointed. Delegate Tom Lapahe called the amendment a “deal-killer.”

Shortly thereafter, Shirley and his staff entered the Council chamber.

Next, Delegate Katherine Benally tried to get language added which had been approved Friday morning by the Western Agency Caucus, calling for 15 percent of any monies received as a result of the rights of way to be distributed among affected chapters in Western Navajo Agency.

Kee Allen Begay said he thought all 110 chapters should get something for the rights of way, while Omer Begay said they were trying to divvy up money before it was even in the coffers. When the debate bogged down over whether the language was a directive or an amendment and Roy Laughter, who made the motion during caucus debate, said he wanted to withdraw his motion, Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan ruled the whole thing out of order because of dispute between the caucus members.

With Shirley looking on, Raymond Joe, on a second by Cecil Eriacho, then made a motion to recall Tsosie’s first amendment, saying it was “a deal-breaker.” The amendment failed, 21-56, on the revote, with 11 delegates either absent or not voting. The rights of way legislation then passed 71-9, with nine delegates not voting.

Afterward, Tsosie said, “This represents a deal-killer for the Navajo people because we removed the sovereignty and totally gave it to Desert Rock. I disagree with Mr. Lapahe. It’s a good thing for Desert Rock Energy Co., a non-Navajo company, and it’s scary on what the Council did. We took an oath to protect the Navajo Nation. We removed the sovereign immunity of the Navajo Nation — that means the people.”

He said he hopes the Navajo people will look at how their delegates voted and hold them accountable.

“The president of the Navajo Nation knows better. Soon after the amendment was adopted, they descended on the chamber to try to change this, and he was actually siding with the company and not the Navajo people. That’s more scary,” Tsosie said.

When asked why the amendment was a “deal-killer,” Plagens said, “You’re up for a raise at work. Would you want your raise to go before 88 elected politicians to vote on your raise? Let’s look at the same analogy. We’re trying to do business. The banks who loan us the money want us to be able to do business, and if we can’t do business, if we have to go before 88 elected officials every time that we want to do business with somebody, then we’re not going to get anybody to loan us the money.

“Basically what was attempted was to give the Council the authority to approve each entity that Desert Rock does business with on a case-by-case basis.”

DPA General Manager Steven Begay was happy with the outcome. “I’ve been working on this close to 10 years, and this was the fourth piece of legislation that we needed. It’s like the fourth leg to a chair — the lease, the tax, and the water are the other three legs, and this right of way is the fourth leg. This project stands on firmer ground to push toward development.”

Herbert Pioche of DPA’s board of directors said the project is for the benefit of the Navajo Nation, “for Navajo people for many, many generations. We don’t own not 1 percent of the two power plants that are on the reservation. This will be the first time to have an opportunity to have ownership in this new power plant.”

Steven Kee, a resident of Ganado, disagreed with the benefits to the Navajo people. “What the Navajo Nation Council has acted on with Desert Rock, to me, this is just like genocide to the Navajo people, even from our newborns to our elderlies. We need clean air.”

Associated Press - February 27, 2009 4:15 PM ET

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The Navajo Nation Council on Friday overwhelmingly approved right-of-way easements for a proposed coal-fired power plant on the reservation, marking the tribe's last step in what has been a long process to move the controversial project forward.

The tribe will receive millions of dollars in fees in exchange for granting rights of way for transmission, data, electrical and water lines, water wells and road access for the $3 billion Desert Rock Energy Project in northwestern New Mexico.

The right-of-way measure was just 1 of a handful of things the tribe had to sign off on before construction could begin. The lease, tax agreements and water rights already have been approved.

Federal officials still have to approve a massive environmental impact statement for Desert Rock.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.