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Conflict between Navajo, Hopi, and Big Coal: environmentalists banned
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Black Mesa
This is an update to the last article dealing with the Peabody Coal company (which provides the coal for Tucson Electric to make Southern Arizona's electricity to power our science and technological advancements. No power, no labs.)
The environmental groups were recently kicked out after asking the EPA to study the impact of the Navajo Generating Station. This may have led to an economic loss for the coal industry, especially if unexceptable polluting is found. The leaders of the Hopi and Navajo tribes even banned their own citizens from protesting the coal company on the reservation.
On Sept. 28 the Hopi tribal council – its legitimacy challenged in political infighting – said the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council, National Parks Conservation Association, Grand Canyon Trust, and “on-reservation organizations sponsored by or affiliated with the groups, are no longer welcome on the reservation.”
The announcement triggered sharp prepared responses from opponents of wider strip mining atop Black Mesa, an area sacred to traditionalists.
The ousted organizations were singled out for reportedly asking the Environmental Protection Agency to study Navajo Generating Station’s possible contribution to smog over the Grand Canyon, raising red flags about economic loss if the plant were to close. A controversial expanded mining permit federally approved last year ensures a coal supply for the plant’s continued operation.
There is clearly a lot of politics involved in this decision, and there may be inappropriate influencing involved with the money that is being generating from the Black Mesa.
Regardless of the politics, this is an important issue that affects us all. Pollution near Lake Powell has a direct impact on the water in Tucson (not to mention Las Vegas, Southern California, and Phoenix).
We may be oblivious to how oil gets to us from different countries, but we should not ignore how our own electrical energy is generated, from coal provided from the Peabody Western Coal company, and its impact on an impoverished people just an afternoon drive away in the northern part of the state.
When you turn on your lights tonight and power up your computer, take some time to learn more about the Black Mesa and the Peabody coal company. The impact on Tucson will not be noticed until it is too late.
By then it may be lights out for all of us.
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