By Cornelia de Bruin The Daily Times
Article Launched: 05/03/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


NEW YORK CITY — Representatives of Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment met earlier this week with the upper management of Sithe Global at the company's corporate offices in New York City.
Sithe Global is the company partnering with the Diné Power Authority, a business enterprise the Navajo tribal government formed to build and operate Desert Rock Power Plant. The 1,500 megawatt coal-burning plant proposed for Burnham on the Navajo Nation is backed financially by The Blackstone Group, which holds an 80 percent ownership stake in Sithe Global LLC.

Diné CARE participants were Anna Frazier, coordinator; Earl Tulley, vice president; and Lori Goodman, treasurer. The trio met with Bruce Wrobel, Sithe Global chairman and chief executive officer; and Thomas DeLeo, chief operating officer.

Global warming vs. cumulative effects

"They had no idea that any Navajo people opposed the plant," said Dailan J. Long, community organizer for Diné CARE. "They were prepared to talk about global warming and climate change issues, but we took the conversation to the cumulative effects the plant would have on us."

The meeting began Wednesday, but Sithe asked it be extended into a Thursday session.

Diné CARE also drew attention to the increase in construction costs of building Desert Rock since Sithe and the Diné Power Authority first proposed it in December 2003 to present, and the amount of carbon dioxide the plant would emit.

Sithe said the plant will emit about 10.9 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, but points out CO2 is not federally regulated as a pollutant.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson released an Executive Order in June 2005 requiring greenhouse gas emissions in New Mexico — which include CO2 — to be reported.

"EPA has made no effort to initiate regulations or programs to enforce this new authority that will help combat climate change," Richardson said in November 2007. "Our state will continue to take the lead in addressing global climate change."

Richardson initially supported Desert Rock, but changed his mind later.

"We presented Sithe with our alternative energy plan," Long said, referring to a document released in mid-January that contrasts the development of coal-fired power plants to the Navajo people's Fundamental Laws, which direct them to live in harmony with their environment and its inhabitants. "We gave them the renewables document and showed them we're doing the homework."

Long described the meeting as "very successful," noting it resulted in a commitment from Sithe to meet with Diné CARE in Burnham at an unspecified date.

"We will continue the dialogue," he said.

Sithe's CEO gives his assessment

Sithe Global Chairman and CEO Bruce Wrobel does not remember saying he did not know some Navajos opposed the Desert Rock Power Plant.

"I'm very aware of the Navajos in opposition to it — we get copies of all the comments," Wrobel said. "Over the course of two days, several hours, we had a very good conversation and arrived at a broad understanding of both sides, both points of view."

Wrobel said he has to rely on his discussions with Navajo elected officials because the reservation is so big and so diverse that he has to make the assumption that they speak for the people.

"Elections could make a difference; the Democrats may retake the White House, but unless we can meet with a couple hundred thousand people it's hard to understand what the consensus is," he said.

Wrobel expressed frustration that Desert Rock Power Plant is targeted for attack "when it is the cleanest, not the dirtiest."

"If ever there was a coal plant that makes sense to build, Desert Rock is it because as a mine-mouth plant, the additional transportation costs and dust issues do not exist," he said. "It will be the cleanest plant in the United States."

The plant remains in a waiting game because of EPA's continued studying of comment and supporting documents.

Sithe Global is committed to creating renewable energy, Wrobel said, but is constrained by a lack of subsidies offered for the energy and existing "bottlenecks" in obtaining wind turbines and solar panels.

"All those bottlenecks create impediments for the creation of renewable energy," he said. "We will continue the dialogue. I've been there a couple times and will continue to do so. Even if we continue to agree to disagree, we will still get together over coffee."

It's about the health of the people

Tulley, Diné CARE vice president, felt the group reached a mutual understanding based on Diné's speaking for the health of its people, and Sithe's inclination to "turn a buck."

"I'm pretty confident there will be cultural sensitivity workshops," he said. "We have an agenda; industry goes into destitute areas and we pick up the pieces. We believe corporations are interested in the financial health of the corporation, but we want to campaign for the health of people — it's a wealth and health issue."

Ninety-nine percent of Navajo tribal members who spoke about effects of the plant at a series of public hearings held by the Environmental Protection Agency opposed its being built. EPA continues to process comments and statements it received, and has not issued the Prevention of Significant Deterioration permit necessary for the plant's operation.

The federal agency's lack of action resulted in the filing of a lawsuit through United States District Court in Houston March 18 by Desert Rock Energy Company, LLC and the Diné Power Authority.

EPA will not comment on its delayed action other than to cite the approximately 1,000 comments sent to it during the hearing and comment process that ended in November 2006, according to Margot Perez-Sullivan, an EPA spokeswoman.

The proposed plant also needs an Environmental Impact Statement before it can begin construction.

Sithe's selling points for Desert Rock

Proponents of the plant cite the importance of economic development to the Navajo Nation and the Nation's overwhelming poverty and substandard living conditions.

They draw attention to the average of 1,000 jobs during the four-year construction period, the 200 full-time operating jobs, direct and indirect annual construction-period payroll of about $200 million and $20 million operation payroll.

"The Desert Rock Project is committed to providing over $5 million to impacted Navajo chapters for capital improvements to chapter houses, and senior centers, as well as scholarships and job training," information from Sithe Global states.

The proposed plant is estimated to contribute 17 percent of the new power generation that will be required to serve projected population growth in the Arizona, New Mexico and southern Nevada region by 2015.

Cornelia de Bruin: cdebruin@daily-times.com

NPR Four Corners Public Radio - Victor Locke
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/ksut/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1269972

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — President Joe Shirley Jr.’s idea to reduce the Navajo council from 88 members to 24 is seen as retaliation by some.

“Initially, as I read the press release on the reduction, I thought it is just a retaliation against the council, the current sitting council, for overrides,” Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan said.

It is also odd that it took Shirley halfway through his second term to “find his platform and begin working on it, six years after coming into the office,” Morgan added.

In a release issued by his press officer, George Hardeen, Shirley said Navajo people expressed their desire to see the Council reduced to 24 members in a 2000 tribal referendum. The president believes the people still support it, and when he campaigned for re-election, he said he would “pursue it diligently” in his second term.

In a scathing open letter to the president, Judiciary Committee Chairman Kee Allen Begay questioned the initiative and whether it would benefit the Navajo Nation.

“YOU are severely misleading our Navajo people of your justifications and it is very obvious that it’s just another tactic of retaliation against the Legislative Branch!” Begay wrote. “As I always said about you and your staff, you put your oppression in full throttle ... when it comes to putting down the Navajo Nation Council.”

Reduction of Council will obviously create a situation where communication with local residents — at the local level, chapters — suffers, Morgan said.

A reduction in the number of council delegates “would greatly improve government efficiency and effectiveness, balance power between the legislative and executive branches of Navajo government, significantly reduce micro-management by Council oversight committees, return the legislative branch to its intended policy-making function and vastly cut the bloated cost of the Council’s operations and expenses,” Shirley’s release stated.

But Morgan thinks the president’s plan would increase costs, and it appears undemocratic.

“Decisions would be made omitting the ‘people’, that would not be a democracy, but rather a dictatorship operation,” Morgan said. “The hasty move is to save money, I suppose; but it would limit services to the people, put a limitation on everything to everyone.

“It defeats the intent of any government services. The government’s expectation is to deliver services to all members of the nation,” the speaker added.

Morgan also was concerned that Shirley’s “cost-cutting” only seemed to be cutting into the legislative branch.
“What are the executive and judicial branches contributing to this splendid idea?” Morgan wondered. “Trying to make changes in a single branch is not a ‘government reform’, but a ‘government deform’.”

Delegate LoRenzo Bates, chairman of the Budget & Finance Committee, said he was concerned with the president’s plan because no feasibility study was done, no estimate of what its impact would be.

Begay said the president should look at his own executive branch appointees, such as division directors, if he wants to find out why the needs of the Nation are not being met.
“Which of your corrupt programs or divisions do I need to point out to you, that you are NOT effectively addressing or making corrections in your own programs, but instead blaming the Navajo Nation Council (for) your unsettling issues?” Begay wrote.

Begay also took the president to task for his comments that the current 88 delegates waste the tribe’s money.

“Is it really a wasteful spending of our 401K savings and benefits? Have you ever put into consideration that the Navajo Nation Council use their own vehicles when conducting their duties; unlike your executive branch, which has a fleet of gas guzzling SUV’s. And you or your staff doesn’t pay a penny for the wear and tear of these vehicles or even pay for the gas! And not to mention insurances!

“Now tell me who is taking advantage of the free-loading, utilizing the Navajo people’s money? Now compare the Navajo Nation Council’s supposedly wasteful spending with your Executive Branch salaries? What’s the average salary of your top political appointees? I believe its $80,000 or more (including your press officer getting paid much higher just to jet out negative information),” Begay wrote. “And your staff assistants also average around $55,000 or more just to pick up checks at the cashiers or just drive around (Window Rock)!”

“I also believe they also have deferred compensation, 401K’s and other benefits. Now average out your staff salaries and the NNC stipends, tell me which drawing out more,” Begay added.

Shirley’s initiative also pointed out how the council routinely waives the law when making appropriations.

But the president does that when its convenient, Begay said. He said laws were waived for the casino efforts, Desert Rock and paying litigation costs, Begay pointed out.
Begay also questioned the president’s open door policy, and suggested he needed to follow the Navajo concept of K’e.

“Why is it that you pose questions or just spill your dirty laundry for the whole world to see? Why is it that your office is just smudging our Great Navajo Nation (People) and Our Navajo Nation sovereignty with endless negative issues and remarks?” Begay wrote. “I will be convinced to support your effort should you, Mr. President Shirley, justify your initiative decisively and accurately ... We can tackle these issues only if we could talk and deliberate on it in our own Navajo language and Navajo thinking.”

On Tuesday, Shirley’s office submitted ballot language to the Navajo Nation Election Administration on two initiative questions, reducing council’s size and giving the president a line-item veto.

Now, an estimated 16,000 petitions signatures must be gathered and certified for the initiative measures to be included on the 2008 general election ballot.

Shirley’s goal is to obtain as many as 25,000 signatures within 90 days to ensure that the measure makes on to the ballot. Under tribal law, he has six months to gather the needed signatures.

If voters approved Shirley’s initiative, it could take effect during the 2010 elections.

Delegates must introduce legislation on the council floor, so it remains to be seen where Shirley’s initiative will go.
“Just because the president makes a huge intimidating move, it doesn’t necessarily mean the legislators will accept,” Morgan said. “That’s democracy.”

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at Hopkins1960@hotmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT


Thursday, May 01, 2008 Deswood Tome
202-682-7390 or 202-607-5507 (wireless)




Diné Power Authority Outlines Projects at
Senate Hearing on Indian Energy


WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs heard testimony today on Indian Energy Development at an oversight hearing.


“Diné Power Authority is the Navajo Nation entity responsible for utility-scale power generation and transmission development on Navajo lands,” said Steve Begay, general manager for DPA.


The Senate Committee held the hearing to hear from tribes to focus on Title V of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and on the implementation of the act. The Navajo Nation used the forum today to list the various projects and update the Committee on needs for more energy development.


“Our first major project is the Navajo Transmission project,” said Begay, referring to a 469 mile high voltage transmission line connecting the generation-rich Four Corners region of the desert southwest. “This permitted project is the only high-voltage system of its size and length that is ready for construction in the United States today.”


Begay was one of four tribal representatives who was invited to testify before the Committee.


“Our second major project is the Desert Rock Energy project, a $3.4 billion mine-mouth, coal-fired power plant that would generate up to 1,500 megawatt located on the Navajo Nation,” said Begay. “Desert Rock would have the lowest regulated emissions of any pulverized coal-fired plant in the United States.”


Begay emphasized the revenue that the proposed energy plant would bring to the Navajo Nation. At $50 million per year for the first year of operation Desert Rock would generate an estimated $1.5 billion to the Navajo treasury in the first 30 years.


During the hearing Begay cited the delay in the issuance of the air quality permit for Desert Rock as an obstacle that the Navajo Nation is encountering with a federal agency. The permit is pending review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.


Begay also renewed the need for Congress to assist in funding the carbon capture and sequestration portion of the coal-fired plant. “The addition of the Carbon Capture and Sequestration to the new generation of clean coal plants that is represented by Desert Rock stands to bring the highest return on this ‘environmental investment’ as opposed to retrofitting older, less efficient coal plants,” Begay said.


“Our third major project is the Diné Wind Project, one of the largest wind generation systems under development in the U.S. today,” said Begay. “In 2006, DPA began a joint venture with Citizens Energy Corporation because of their strong commitment to working with Native communities.”


Senate Indian Affairs Committee Vice Chair Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, thanked Begay for testifying. “I want to commend the Navajo Nation for pursuing the Diné Wind farm project.”


Chairman Dorgan said that the Senate Committee staff will travel to the various tribes to hold round table discussions on development and obstacles that tribes face.


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