Protesters march toward the Navajo Nation Tribal Council Chambers on Monday
as they voice their objections to water rights negotiations with Peabody
Coal.
By Kathy Helms, Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK. Despite protesters with loudspeakers at the Chamber door and
requests to keep public a report by the attorney general on the status of
the Navajo Nation/Peabody negotiations, Navajo Nation Council heard the report
Monday in executive session.
Hogback Delegate Ervin Keeswood made the motion. "It's very important that
the council listen to these reports because the council, you as the
governing body, will give direction, and before we get this out in the open if you
noticed, there was a report that was made by a local paper which was not 100
percent correct. However they got the information certainly is
interesting," he said.
The Independent received no requests for a correction.
The information contained in the March 7 confidential draft Mohave mediation
document "would seem detrimental in regard to the direction the Navajo
Nation should go. It's very important that we talk about this," Keeswood
said.
He then moved for executive session after presenters offered introductions.
The motion passed 40-19.
Attorney General Louis Denetsosie said, "We're pleased to have an
opportunity here to give a presentation on the Mohave Generating Station
and the Black
Mesa Mine, and the C-aquifer project negotiations."
Presenters included the attorney general, two Washington, D.C., attorneys
handling the Navajo Nation vs. Peabody lawsuit; Britt Clapham, who has been
handling the Peabody vs. Navajo Nation litigation in Arizona as well as a
host of Navajo-Hopi issues; and Navajo Nation hydrologist Jason John.
During the executive session council reportedly asked for a work session
sometime in May.
Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., during his State of the Navajo
Nation Address, said the closure of Mohave last December had immediate and
deep impacts on the Navajo Nation.
"The most important has been the shutdown of the Black Mesa Mine and the
loss of jobs and family income for the mine's many dedicated workers,"
Shirley said.
Ripple effect The closure of the mine is having economic ripple effects that are touching
thousands of Navajo citizens, he said. "The first among them is the request
by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority to add a 7.2 percent surcharge to
electric bills."
The president said he was pleased the NTUA Board of Directors postponed the
surcharge in response to public and elected officials' concerns.
"Now I call upon this body to do what it can for our citizens. I ask that
you consider a $1 million special appropriation to NTUA to overcome this
hurdle
brought on by the loss of income it received from the mine, and take the
burden off our people who can less afford it," he said.
The special appropriation would come from Navajo coffers through emergency
funding from the Undesignated Reserve, leaving the Navajo people still
basically footing the bill for the Black Mesa shutdown.
"While we have many needs requiring appropriations, this is one that
benefits our people in a direct way by staving off the loss of their
hard-earned
income so that they'll have just that little more to help provide for their
families," Shirley said.
The president, meanwhile, made a pitch for the Desert Rock Energy Project
and the Navajo Transmission Project, saying, "These projects will create
true
economic opportunities for the Navajo Nation, in addition to providing a
base
for long-term revenues.
"The $2.5 billion Desert Rock Power Plant is the single largest economic
development project being undertaken in Native America," Shirley said,
adding
that it would provide thousands of construction jobs during the building
phase
and more than 400 permanent jobs at the plant and adjacent Navajo coal mine.
Desert Rock will be one of the Nation's largest taxpayers, providing more
than $50 million in yearly revenue from the combined plant, coal mine and
transmission line, or more than 30 percent of the Nation's annual budget.
Shirley said the project has his full support. "Desert Rock will be a model
for all future coal plants, setting new standards for efficiency and low
emissions. Simply put, this project will address one of the most important
economic development, environmental and energy challenges facing the Navajo
Nation," he said.
NTUA surcharge
Delegate Leonard Chee made reference to the $1 million proposed for NTUA to
cover the surcharge it intended to pass along to its customers. "To me
that's
just a Band-Aid approach. We need to find out how many years the mine will
be down. We can't just be fishing out $1 million every time NTUA wants
money,"
he said.
"There was a good proposal that came from the Just Transition, where they
could use them for the credits that are out there and to be used to
offset the
economic impact of the mine closure. Your administration and the AG is
opposed to that. So I would like to recommend that that be revisited."
Chee also spoke to the issue of the Peabody coal negotiations. "In my
opinion, it's a negotiation between people with money and people wanting
to give
away everything for money. Where do we come in as a council? Where do we
come
in as the people of this Nation?" he asked.
President Shirley said that must mean the Navajo Nation has money, because
the Nation is part of the negotiations.
Teec Nos Pos Delegate Francis Redhouse also had questions for the president
regarding Desert Rock. "Sanostee Chapter did not support the project by
majority, consensus vote. Does that tell you and your favorable project
where the
community stands? Does the vote of the people mean anything? I would highly
recommend you listen to the people and their votes on this project and the
community surrounding," he said.
Upper Fruitland Delegate LoRenzo Bates said that when he looked at the
structure of the deal, in terms of the Navajo Nation being the recipient
of these
payments, revenues, royalties, "it seems to me right now that it's
structured
the same way as any other power plant deal that has come about to the Navajo
Nation, in its entirety. And all of those have been the backseat approach.
"By the backseat approach, I mean, the project is within Navajo. It uses in
its entirety Navajo resources land, water, money but yet we are receiving
what is passed from the front seat to the back seat. It's just beyond me
why the
Nation does not buy into it," Bates said.
A clause within the current proposal states that the Nation can buy. "But
it's at a later time. And we all know how the Nation reacts meeting
deadlines.
... That deadline will come and go.
"So my question is, why cannot the Nation support an initiative to buy in?
You've been pushing anywhere from $100 million to $500 million bond
proposal.
Now is an opportunity," Bates said. He also reminded Shirley of a "BHP
windfall tax that the Nation got during the Hale administration to the
tune of $65
million. What today can the Nation show that it got that money? Nothing that
I know."
http://www.gallupindependent.com/2006/apr/041806dscprvt.html