Biggest coal-fired plant in Western U.S. to close, will hurt job prospects for Navajo and Hopi employees - Entrepreneur Generations

The Navajo Generating Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in the Western U.S., will close in December 2019 unless a buyer can be found. Salt River Project, the utility that owns the 2,250 megawatt plant, said the closure was because producing electricity from natural gas is cleaner and cheaper.

"Navajo leaders are scrambling to find a new owner for the Navajo Generating Station," Laurel Morales reports for Cronkite News in Arizona. "Officials with the Hopi Tribe have asked the federal government to buy electricity from the plant to avoid a shutdown. The Hopi Nation lies within the vast Navajo Nation, and both tribes have relied heavily on the coal industry for the past 40 years."

The plant's closure will strike a deep blow to the Navajo and Hopi tribes: the 500 jobs at the NGS pay better than any other jobs nearby, and revenue, taxes and royalties from coal make up most of the Hopi budget and a third of the Navajo operating budget, Morales reports. About half the Navajos on the reservation are unemployed.

About a third of the plant's employees have taken jobs with SRP in Phoenix. Jerry Williams, who has worked for NGS for 38 years, told Morales that some people turned their job offers down: "A couple of them I know are close to retirement. And some of them, they have families, they have kids here in the school system and some of them have property they bought here."

"Hopes were raised last summer when the New York investment company Avenue Capital Group and Middle River Power of Illinois considered buying the plant, but the groups dropped the idea in September. Unless something changes, the plant’s last day is scheduled for Dec. 22, 2019," Morales reports.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2z75EJb Biggest coal-fired plant in Western U.S. to close, will hurt job prospects for Navajo and Hopi employees - Entrepreneur Generations

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