Council keeps Peabody discussion private

Protesters march toward the Navajo Nation Tribal Council Chambers on Monday as they voice their objections to water rights negotiations with Peabody Coal. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

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."