New Mexico Governor Opposes Coal Power Plant on Navajo Land.

SANTA FE, New Mexico, July 27, 2007 (ENS) - New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today expressed his opposition to a new $2 billion, 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant proposed for Navajo Nation lands in northwestern New Mexico near the Four Corners area.

“I am gravely concerned about the potential environmental impacts of the proposed Desert Rock Energy Facility,” said the governor, who is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. “Each new conventional coal plant built without significant carbon dioxide controls is a step backwards and does not move us towards a future of more safe and efficient energy use,” Richardson said.

“The estimated 12 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year from the Desert Rock Energy Facility would increase New Mexico greenhouse gas emissions by about 15 percent, making my aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals difficult – if not impossible – to meet,” he said.

“My administration has taken steps to ensure that any new coal-fired power plants built in New Mexico include the latest carbon clean gasification methods, making up to $60 million dollars in tax credits available for coal plants that capture at least 60 percent of carbon emissions,” the governor said.

On the federal level, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, proposed its clean air permit for the Desert Rock power plant on July 19.

“The EPA’s proposed permit will require the best pollution controls available for a pulverized coal-burning power plant, and will limit air pollution emissions from the facility to levels that protect public health and the environment,” said Deborah Jordan, the EPA’s air programs director for the Pacific Southwest region.

“We encourage Navajo Nation residents and other interested citizens to learn about the proposal and participate in the comment process,” she said.

The EPA will formally publish a public notice in the Farmington Daily Times and The Navajo Times in a few weeks, which begins a public comment period that will end on October 27.

In September, the EPA will host informational public workshops about the proposed permit for Navajo Nation residents and nearby communities, and will return in October for a formal public hearing.

Governor Richardson says that based on a scientific review facility’s draft EIS by the New Mexico Environment Department he believes that it would “adversely impact air quality, exacerbate existing environment problems, and negatively impact scarce surface and ground water resources.”

Because Desert Rock has potential statewide impacts, Richardson called for additional hearings on the draft EIS to be held in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. “Per my direction, the New Mexico Environment Department has submitted tough comments to the Bureau of Indian Affairs outlining these serious concerns.”

Now he has directed “high-level” administration officials to conduct formal discussions with the Navajo Nation “to ensure that the state’s concerns regarding this project are understood and considered at this critical stage of the process.”

Richardson says he respects “the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation and the rights of tribal governments to determine their economic futures and to pursue positive change within their communities.” He understands the “dire economic conditions and high unemployment rates on the reservation,” the governor said.

Some Navajo communities in the Four Corners area are trying to prevent Sithe Global Power and the Dine Power Authority from building Desert Rock. “It is blatant environmental racism and injustice when you place a third power plant in an impoverished community with little or no access to healthcare,” said Lori Goodman of Dine CARE. “For our elders and future generations, we vow to fight this intrusion upon our people’s health and way of life.”

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www.SustainabiliTank.info would like to point at the last paragraph - that is the real give away to the issue.

What we have here is nothing more than an attempt to use the argument of poverty of a third world nation - in this case the Navajo Nation, that is under US Federal Jurisdiction, while also part of the geography of New Mexico State. The Power industry wants the plant, the Federal Government will not deviate from the wish of the industry, but the Governor of New Mexico brings up the argument of CO2 emissions and outright pollution and medical hazards conected to this project, and that will impact his whole State. He also knows that his actions are being watched now, not only in New Mexico and Navajo-land, but all over the US, and environmentalists want no part of that plant, that even does not seem to propose the use of the best available technology.

We hope that the US electorate wil also stop to think why all polluting plants hapen to be in poor neighborhoods? Finally, they may even understand that this is a global problem and the effects will eventually be felt all over the US - that is in their neighborhoods also.