Energy

Is Power from the Navajo Generating Station too Costly for CAP?

Anita Christy

by Patrick O’Malley

Central Arizona Project (CAP) provides Maricopa, Pinal, and Pima counties with 1.5 million acre feet of water every year. Navajo Generating Station (NGS) is the major source of electrical power to CAP, and electricity is CAP’s biggest operating expense. NGS continues to be one of the biggest problems facing CAP.

The EPA Wants $1.1 Billion in Pollution Controls

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants NGS to add additional pollution controls with a price tag of $1.1 billion. A letter of understanding by the Directors of the EPA, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Energy in January gave NGS more time to study the issue, but it’s not likely to change the answer.  All three of those Directors at the EPA have since resigned, so it’s not up to them anymore.

Recently Rep. Matt Salmon sent a letter to the EPA asking them to take into account the economic impact on Arizona of additional pollution controls at NGS for negligible air quality improvement.   The EPA has been known to take economic issues into account in the past. But will they do it for a coal fired power plant?

Navajo Tribal Council Wants 15 Times More in Lease Payments

Plus, there’s a new problem for NGS.   The Navajo Generating Station is located on Navajo Nation land, and the coal it burns comes from a mine on Navajo land.  Both the lease and the coal mining agreement are up for renegotiation.

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Report on the 11/14/2013 EPA Hearing: Navajo Generating Station

Anita Christy

by Patrick O’Malley
Precinct Committeeman (LD12)

At the EPA Hearing on November 14, the EPA asked those who wished to speak to come up and take a seat at the front table two at a time for efficiency. So I’m making my comments and the guy sitting next to me is with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Is he supposed to be the balance to my conservative comments? No, we are both there trying to convince the EPA to leave Navajo Generating Station (NGS) alone. Or at least leave something in operation after they make their final ruling, because we both clearly see the damage changes at NGS will have on Arizona’s economy. It’s not just a federal authority out of control or state’s rights issue. This agency is messing with our everyday lives.

There were about 200 people at the hearing and about 100 of them made statements. It broke pretty cleanly into the Sierra Club wanting quick, drastic changes that will close NGS, and everybody else. Everybody else included legislators, union workers, Central Arizona Project, farmers, Indian Tribes, and average citizens. Rep. Warren Petersen and Joy Staveley from Canyoneers wanted the EPA completely out of our business and to back off completely from NGS. They have the right principles for the long term fight with the EPA, but I’m afraid it’s too late for principles to triumph on NGS.

The Technical Working Group (TWG) Negotiates a Surrender

In June of this year the Technical Working Group (TWG) got together and proposed a negotiated surrender as opposed to having the EPA force them into an unconditional surrender. TWG consists of Salt River Project and the Department of the Interior as major owners of NGS; Central Arizona Project (CAP) as the biggest customer of NGS; Gila River Indian Community as a major customer of CAP; the Navajo Nation because NGS is on their land, and they supply the coal to make it go; and two environmental groups, Environmental Defense Fund and Western Resource Advocates. The Sierra Club was originally part of TWG, but walked out when the plan wasn’t severe enough to satisfy them.

So why didn’t the State of Arizona get a seat at the TWG table? Technically because the EPA is dealing directly with the Navajo Nation and it’s not an Arizona issue, but it’s safe to assume the other members of TWG were afraid a State of Arizona representative couldn’t be trusted to surrender fast enough.

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Pelosi and the Democrats want to Destroy the Navajo Nation

Anita Christy

Thanks to Andy McKinney for the following post.  

Dear Friends,

Nancy Pelosi is attacking the Navajo nation with a fury not seen for over a century.  She and her Democrat Party allies have set their sights on the economic and social destruction of the Navajo nation.

Fifty percent of the economically active people on the Navajo reservation are unemployed.  The nation participates in three interconnected operations providing $100,000,000 for the Navajo people. These are the Kayenta coal mine, the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) and the railroad that connects the two.  Losing the NGS means the loss of this entire economy, not just for the Navajo people, but also for the people who benefit and depend on it for their own livelihoods.

Pelosi wants to close the generating station on utterly bogus environmental grounds.  

 She and her Democrat Party Pals want to crush the economic life out of the Navajos.  For her, Navajos shouldn’t be allowed to have high paying railroad, mining, or power generating jobs. For her, food stamps and poverty are all the Navajo people can aspire to.

Fortunately, the Navajo coal miners are represented by the United Mine Workers of America UMWA).  Perhaps the Democrat Party will not throw their allies in big labor under the bus in favor of their allies in the environmental wacko movement.  Ninety-eight percent of the UMWA members at Kayenta are Navajo.

Save the Navajo.  Stop the Democrat Party.

 

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EPA’s Secret Deals with Environmentalists: Sue and Settle

Anita Christy

The EPA is under investigation for a practice called Sue and Settle. Environmentalists in government and private organizations have found ways to create new regulations by fashioning lawsuits tailored to have courts institute policy changes. Both parties involved in the lawsuits secretly decide in advance what the outcome will be and how much taxpayer money will be transferred to the environmental group in the settlement. In other words, they are exploiting the courts to change laws, and in the process, helping to fund radical environmental groups without legislative or taxpayer consent. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been given to these groups.

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The Impact of Coal Restrictions on the Navajo Nation: Sen. Carlyle Begay

Anita Christy

In announcing his recent decision to change from the Democrat to the Republican Party, Arizona Senator Carlyle Begay spoke of unemployment rates as high as 80% in his district.   He also stated that future progress in Arizona has to include partnerships with rural and tribal communities.  It is the Republican party that has embraced these crucial partnerships, which are the cornerstone of the future of our state.

As a rural Arizonan living in Gila County, I understand some of the concerns that we share.  Rural and tribal Arizonans live in and of the land.  We are sustained by it.  We respect and love it.  Rural Arizona offers rich natural resources that have fed, clothed, sheltered, and provided energy and water to millions of people.  

The Democrat Party has waged war on our livestock, timber, and coal industries, the very industries that sustain Arizona’s rural and tribal communities.    

Back in July 2015, then Democrat Senator Carlyle Begay spoke at the Heartland Institute’s International Conferences on Climate Change. 

Please see a summary of Senator Begay’s speech following the video.  

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Please STOP the EPA’s War on Coal in Northern Arizona: Sen. Sylvia Allen

Anita Christy

Please submit your comments to the EPA expressing your opposition to the jobs-killing "Clean Power Plan."   The environmentalist groups–who don’t live anywhere near Northern Arizona–are writing in favor of the plan four to one.  We need your comments!  The letter Arizona Senator Sylvia Allen used to submit a comment is below.  You are welcome to use all or part of it, but please write how this plan will affect you and your family. 

Here are the instructions to submit your comments:

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Arizona Sen. Carlyle Begay: “We Must See Ourselves in a Whole New Light”

Anita Christy

As noted in a November 24 news article, Senator Carlyle Begay has recently changed from the Democrat to Republican Party.  I have never met Sen. Begay, but I’ve observed him and heard his remarks during the last legislative session.  He is a highly intelligent, thoughtful, well-educated man.  Both Democrats and Republicans can politicize his decision all they want, but I know that he will be guided by his convictions, not politics, whenever he casts his votes.  The welfare of his constituents, many of whose ancestors were the First Arizonans, will rank far above either party.  He believes that the time has come for his people to achieve prosperity. In fact, he wants all Arizonans to prosper.  Please watch this video.  Notice the many terms and phrases that he uses.  This is what the Republican Party stands for.  

In the following video, you will gain some insight into why Senator Begay is adamant that "change must happen" and why he believes it is the Republican Party that is working to find solutions that will help the people that Sen. Begay represents.  He explains that "families living within our rural and tribal communities are in a crisis.  Unemployment is as high as 80%.  Roads, bridges, and infrastructure are wasting away.  Many Native American families are without electricity and clean, running water.  Native American students have some of the lowest graduation rates and some of the highest drop-out rates.  Native Americans have the highest rates of suicide in the country."    Senator Begay desires to work within the Republican Party to build a bridge connecting those who need and want a chance with those who can help provide that chance. The Republican Party is the party of progress, the party of opportunity.  It is, now, Senator Begay’s Party.  

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