Navajo president promotes plant
Thursday, March 20th 2008BY STEPHANIE PAIGE OGBURN | JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley wants the Desert Rock power plant to get built so much he traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to meet with Environmental Protection Agency administrator Stephen Johnson.

“We met face to face,” Shirley said. “I apprised him exactly of what we’re dealing with and why we wanted Desert Rock in spite of the naysayers, in spite of the critics. And hopefully he’s heard my story.”

Those naysayers Shirley referred to include citizens of the Navajo Nation, represented by two groups: Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment and Dooda Desert Rock. (Dooda means “no” in Navajo.) The proposed coal-fired power plant would be constructed 30 miles southwest of Farmington, N.M., and has raised concerns about potential impacts to air quality in Cortez.

Shirley claimed the majority of people in the Navajo Nation favor the proposed power plant, since it was a key part of his 2006 campaign platform when he was re-elected.

About 66,000 Navajos voted in the 2006 presidential election, which Shirley won with 53.5 percent of the vote.

Members of Diné CARE say Navajos will be displaced by expanded coal mining operations to fuel the proposed plant. They also oppose the emissions of nitrogen oxides, which react to form ozone, sulfur dioxide, which contributes to smog, particulate matter, and mercury, a toxin that can enter the food chain through deposition in water.

Nationally, concerns about carbon dioxide emissions have stalled the development of new coal-fired power plants. To date, there is no technology on the market that can capture carbon dioxide emissions on a scale large enough for installation in a coal-fired power plant.

Navajos against the power plant mention a concern about carbon dioxide emissions as well as other emissions, and point to alternative energy projects as other ways to move the nation toward economic development.

“The Navajo Nation is geo graphically positioned to be a leader in renewable energy technology,” said Dailan Long, a Navajo who works for Diné CARE and opposes the Desert Rock project.

“We have drawn the line in the sand,” Long said, speaking of his group’s opposition to the power plant. “We wanted to make it known to him (Shirley) that we are not stepping down.”

Long’s chapter house, the Burnham Chapter of the Navajo Nation, passed a resolution opposing the proposed Desert Rock power plant.


The nearby Nenahnezad Chapter House, whose jurisdiction covers the land on which Desert Rock would be built, passed a resolution favoring the plant, but the resolution was passed at a meeting of only 50 members, said Lucinda Bennalley, the chapter president.

“(We) are trying to develop jobs for our people,” said Bennalley, who favors the plant.

In a recent meeting, Shirley intimated that Navajos opposed to the power plant are being paid by non-native environmentalists for their opposition.

“These are not even Navajo people (that) come in and say no, no, no, we’re environmentalists. And they’re giving monies to some of our Navajo people to say no,” Shirley said. “My own people in the majority says let’s have it.”

Shirley said he hoped to get an approval on the air permit from the EPA within the next week.

“Hopefully we’ll get some action, some positive action,” he said.

The Navajo Nation Dine Power Authority and Sithe Global Power, partners in the project, are awaiting the air permit from the EPA for the proposed coal-fired power plant.

The plant cannot go forward without getting the air permit and a completed environmental impact statement from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, said Nathan Plagens, vice president of the Desert Rock Energy Company LLC, a division of Sithe Global Power.

Reach Stephanie Paige Ogburn at stephanieo@cortez journal.com.