Bill introduced to keep Navajo Generating Station open

LECHEE, Ariz.

The long-awaited replacement lease legislation to keep the Navajo Generating Station open was released Wednesday evening.

Negotiations and finalization of the proposed replacement lease legislation took longer than expected, according to the Navajo Nation speaker’s office.

The bill (No. 194-17) is now in a public comment period, which started today, May 25. It ends on Memorial Day, May 29.

Comments can be emailed to comments@navajo-nsn.gov and dropped off or mailed to Executive Director, Office of Legislative Services, P.O. Box 3390, Window Rock, AZ 86515.

The legislation becomes eligible for committee action on May 30.

The proposed replacement lease, a 70-page document, comes very close to 48 years after the Navajo Nation Council on May 27,1969, approved a resolution authorizing a lease with at least six utility companies, including Arizona Public Service Co. and Salt River Project, for the construction of a coal-fired power plant near Lake Powell.

The 1969 resolution states the term of the lease as 50 years with an option to extend for 25 more. The lease, which ends in December 2019, was passed 46-0.

“When I came into office, we (Begaye-Nez administration) made it our goal to get all the five owners signed off on a new lease,” President Russell Begaye said, “going through 2044.

“That was our mission – to get the signature of the five,” Begaye said. “So we began meeting with each one of them to get them to sign on, making sure this whole agreement moves forward.”
NGS is owned by APS, NV Energy, SRP, Tucson Electric Power, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The owners in February announced that the plant would close at the end of 2019 due to competition from cheap natural gas. Since then, the Department of the Interior has met with the Navajo and the Hopi tribes and other stakeholders to try to find a way to keep the plant afloat longer.

The replacement lease bill was introduced Wednesday by Speaker LoRenzo Bates. He said that allowing NGS to remain in operation will provide the Navajo Nation some stability in terms of projected revenue that benefits the tribe and the state of Arizona.

“In addition, it allows us time to continue pursuing other energy sources including renewable energy,” Bates said, “which the nation has started through Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and Navajo Transitional Energy Company.”

Begaye added that the Navajo Nation’s primary goal is to renew the plant’s lease and “explore all ways” to keep it open until 2029.

“We’re confident that these two years that we’re going to have, we’ll be able to find ways, find owners, and find a way to keep the plant running through 2029,” Begaye said. “We’ll fight for 2029, doing everything we can to make sure the plant moves forward to 2029.”

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