Thursday, March 28, 2024

Listening sessions set on future of NGS

Listening sessions set on future of NGS

FLAGSTAFF

The Department of the Interior this week will host four listening sessions concerning the future of the Navajo Generating Station.

The first listening session will take place today, May 15, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. The second session is scheduled for May 17 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Page Community Center in Page, Arizona. The third session is scheduled for May 18 from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Kykotsmovi Community Center in Kykotsmovi, Arizona. And the final session is scheduled for May 19 from 9 a.m. until noon at Nakai Hall in Window Rock.

Navajo language translators will be present at the Page and the Window Rock meetings.

The intent of the listening sessions is to provide attendees with an opportunity to tell federal officials what they think should be the future of the coal-fired power plant located in LeChee, Arizona. However, officials will not be responding to comments and will not answer questions at these sessions, according to the agency.

Comments may also be submitted in writing at these sessions or submitted through email (ngs@usbr.gov) before or after the listening sessions.

The Navajo Nation and Salt River Project, the operator of the plant, earlier this month made “considerable progress” in talks to sign a new lease that would keep it open through the end of 2019.

President Russell Begaye said on Sunday that the Navajo Nation and SRP are moving forward in negotiations on a replacement lease, which would preserve jobs and revenue for the Diné and the Hopi for at least two more years.

Begaye issued a statement earlier this month declaring the tribe’s primary goal is to renew the plant’s lease and “explore all ways” to keep it open until 2029. Further, Begaye also said that NGS task force teams – initiated by his administration – would be finding new buyers so that the plant can run until that year.

“We have to make a transition from dependency on coal and the coal mine,” Begaye said. “We need to find other means and what we have in place.”

NGS owners Arizona Public Service Co., NV Energy, SRP, Tucson Electric Power, and the Bureau of Reclamation voted in February to close the power plant at the end of 2019, saying that low natural gas prices no longer make it economically viable.


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About The Author

Krista Allen

Krista Allen is editor of the Navajo Times.

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